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From the First to the Twentieth Century

A Fourth Century Jewish Christian: Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia

Hugh Schonfield

THE HISTORY OF
JEWISH CHRISTIANITY

From the First to the Twentieth Century

Hugh Schonfield

Author of

An Old Hebrew Text of Matthew 's Gospel

The Last Book of the Nativity of John

The Speech that Moved the World

Duckworth, London
1936

Contents pages

original cd

Introduction 5 6

Chapter 1 10 9

The disciples of the Galilean Wonder-Worker, first attempts at organization; death of Stephan the
protomartyr and persecution by Saul of Tarsus; preaching of the Gospel in the Provinces; execution of
James the son of Zebedee; formation of a Jewish Christian Sanhedrin under the presidency of James the
Just; first missionary journey of Paul and Barnabas; response of the Gentiles; dispute on the status of
Gentile converts; verdict of the Council of Jerusalem.

Chapter 11 18 15

The famine in Judaea in the reign of Claudius; league of Nazarenes and Zealots to withstand official
oppression; evidence from the Epistle of James, die Apocalypse, of Baruch,, Josephus and the Talmud;
martyrdom of James the Just.

Chapter 111 26 21

Paul's further missionary journeys; antinomianism among the Gentile believers; Paul's last visit to
Jerusalem; his arrest and interrogation; martyrdom of Peter and Paul at Rome.

Chapter IV 31 24

Increase of anarchy in Judaea; escape of the Nazarenes and moderate Pharisees from Jerusalem; war
with Rome and its aftermath; brief exposition of the Book of Revelation; the belief in the near return of
Christ.

Chapter V 36 28

Exile of the Nazarenes at Pella; their Christology contrasted with that of the Gentile Christians;
separation of the Jewish and Gentile churches; the rule of the Desposynoi; persecution of the. family of
Jesus on account of their Davidic descent; interrogation of the grandsons of Jude by Domitian;
martyrdom of Simon son of Cleophas under Trajan; last Jewish bishops of Jerusalem; second revolt of
the Jews in the reign of Hadrian; Bar-Kochba persecutes the Nazarenes; end of the war and scattering of
the Jewish believers; foundation ^Elis Capatolina; Marcus first Gentile bishop of ^lis; attempted
expulsion of the Nazarenes from the Synagogue.

Chapter VI 43 33

Preaching of the Apostles; organization of native churches; the Teaching of the Twelve Apostles;

missionary activities among the Jews; methods of approach; pseudonymous propaganda and

interpolations; the Gospel of the Hebrews; ministry of healing.

Addenda

i. Remains of Jewish Christianity in the Talmud

ii. Longer Fragments of the Gospel of the Hebrews

Chapter Vll 58 44

Crystallization of Jewish and Christian traditions and doctrines; unfriendly controversy; examples of
Nazarene and Rabbinist polemics; Toledot Yeshu; separation of the Jewish Christians into two groups;
influence of the Nazarenes on the Syrian Church; the Clementine Romances and the Odes of Solomon;
Symmachus and his Greek Old Testament; some account of Hegesippus.

Chapter Vlll 66 50

Conversation of the Roman Empire to Christianity; disputation between R. Sambres and Pope Sylvester
before Constantine; history of Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia; history of Count Joseph; anti- Jewish

edicts of the Councils; finding of relics of Christ and the Apostles; conversion of the Jew, of Minorca
according to Bishop Severus; the pseudo-Messiah Moses of Crete and the conversion of some of his
followers; change in the Christian attitude towards the Jews.
Addendum: Some professions of Faith required of Jewish Converts.

Chapter IX 77 58

Causes of the disruption of Jewish Christianity; genesis and development of Gnosticism; the
Antitheses; the Sophia mythos; celibacy and vegetarianism; final heterodoxy of the Ebionites; rise of
Islam; last glimpses of independent Jewish Christianity in the East.

Chapter X 83 62

The second phase of Jewish Christianity; forced baptism and its results; Jews under the Visigothic
kings; decree of King Sisebut; wholesale conversions; decrees of the Fourth Council of Toledo.

Chapter XI 90 67

Decree of the Sixth Council of Toledo; Christianized Jews' address to King Reccesuinth; Julian,
Archbishop of Toledo; approach to the Jews in the Eastern Church; disputation between Herbanus the
Jew and Gregentius, Archbishop of Tephren; Jacob the newly baptized; Jews under the Carlovignian
kings; a Jewish Christian and William II of England; Moses Sephardi (Petrus Alfonso).

Chapter XII 98 73

The Crusades and Jewish Persecution; St. Bernard of Clairvaux; disputation between Nicolas Damn and
R. Jehiel of Paris; charges of blasphemy against the Talmud; copies publicly burnt; disputation between
Pablo Christiani and R. Nahmanides; an argument on the Trinity; creation of a board of censorship for
the Talmud; Abner of Burgos; disputation between John of Valladolid and Moses haCohen of
Tordesillas; disputation between Joseph ibn Vives Al Lorqui (Geronimo de Santa Fe) and twenty-two
Jewish rabbis at Tortosa; the activities of the Dominicans; a decree of James II of Aragon; outcome of
the disputations.

Chapter XIII 107 79

Intermarriage of Jewish Christian with Christian notables; history of the Pierleoni family: a Jewish
Christian Pope; Anacletus II; history of the Carthagena family; Solomon Halevi (Paul de Santa Maria),
Bishop of Burgos; his testament to his son; Jewish Christians in the Eastern Church, Gregory AbuT
Faraj. sumamed Bar Hebseus, Primate of the Jacobites.

Chapter XIV 115 85

The Domus Conversorum at Oxford and London; Henry Ill's charter; important inmates; Nicolas de
Lyra; his Postills and the Reformation; history of the protesting movement in the East; Paul of
Samosata and the Paulicians; the Bogonmils, Cathars and Albigenses; Zachartah of Kiev; Theodora,
Tsarina of Bulgaria; initiation ceremony of the Cathars; suppression of the Albigenses by the
Inquisition.

Chapter XV 121 90

Apotheosis of clericalism; Marranos of Spain and Portugal and the Chuetas of Malloruca; objects of the
Inquisition; treatment of heretics; tests for crypto Jews; refugees in the Netherlands; expulsion of the
Jews from Spain and Portugal; Christopher Columbus and the new world; sermon of the Archbishop of
Cranganor at Lisbon to a convicted company of New Christians; Mercy and Justice.

Chapter XVI 128 96

Jewish Christianity under Protestantism; Luther and the Jews; the Renaissance; Pfefferkorn and
Reuchlin; representative Jewish Christians of the 1 6th and 1 7th century; Mark Raphail advises Henry

VIII of England on his marriage with Queen Catherine; Dr. Lopez accused of conspiring to poison
Queen Eliazbeth; Jewish Christian mendicants and the Liber Vagatorum.

Chapter XVII 137 103

Influence of Jewish ideas on Christian life and thought; Messianic expectations in the 1 7th century,
apocalyptic year 1666; Edzard and Callenberg initiate missionary work among theJews, Institutum
Judsicum; Shabbathai Zevi; Frankists; mystical Jewish Christianity, Christian students of Jewish
Literature; John Toland vindicates Jewish Christianity in his Nazarenus.

Chapter XVIII 146 109

Modem Protestant missions to the Jews; representative Jewish Christians of the 19th century; great
increase in Jewish voluntary baptisms; Jewish Christian missionary enterprise.

Chapter XIX 150 1 12

Foundations of Modern Jewish Christianity; Michael Alexander, first Jewish Christian Bishop of
Jerusalem since a.d. 135; Palestine Place and the Beni Abraham association; Hebrew Christian Prayer
Union; formation of the Hebrew Christian Alliance; Joseph Rabinowitz, the Herzl of Jewish
Christianity; the Israelites of the New Covenant at Kischineff

Chapter XX 158 118

Christianity within the Jewish community; P. Lichtenstein and anti-Semitism; Jewish Christians and
Christian denominationalism; The "Ebionite" controversy; growth of a distinct Jewish Christian
consciousness.

Chapter XXI 166 124

The Great War and the Jewish situation; Jewish Christward movements; the first international Jewish

Christian conference; foundation of the International Hebrew Christian Alliance with Sir Leon Levison

as President; constitution of the Alliance; National Alliances formed in many countries; the principle of

a Hebrew Christian Church approved; descendants of the Portuguese Marranos join the Alliance; the

Nazi regime In Germany; sufferings of Jewish Christians and non-Aryans; questions for the future.

Addendum

Extracts from the Presidents Address, First I.II.C.A. Conference, 1925

Introduction

Among histories of Christianity there has long existed a gap, which either has passed
unnoticed or has been deemed of Httle consequence by Christian scholars. It is only where this
gap is at its narrowest, in the early days of the Church, that any consideration has been paid to it,
and then the treatment of the subject involved, the life and faith of primitive Jewish Christianity,
has been of the most partial character. A common judgment has been expressed by the late Dr.
Hort in his lectures on Judaistic Christianuy. He describes the Jewish Church as;

"a natural product of the circumstances of the Apostolic Age, living on for some generations,
and that probably not without times of revival, but becoming more and more evidently a
futile anachronism as the main body of the Church grew up into a stately tree in the eyes of
all men; and at length dying naturally away."

This point of view can no longer be held by the serious investigator. Gentile Christianity has
been intelligibly enough preoccupied with its own rise to power and influence, and in the first
flush of that power it sought by anathema, suppression and wholesale destruction of documents
to overthrow the witness of Jewish Christianity. If there was a death at all, which there is good
cause to doubt, it was not natural one; it was matricide. Far from becoming a futile anachronism
its spirit and human activity has persisted until the present day, and is even now undergoing a
revival on a scale unknown since apostolic times.

Jewish Christianity has always existed to supply that of which the Church has stood in need —
the Messianic vision. Gentile Christians in conversation with Jews have often spoken of Jesus as
"our Savior, and your Messiah." Yet Jesus is as much the Messiah of the Gentiles as he is of the
Jews; only the Catholic Church has largely lost the sense of the meaning o that exalted office. If
it were not so, if the true preaching of the Kingdom of God had been carried out according to the
Gospel injunction, the horrors of warfare would have long since ceased between so-called
Christian countries. The only diplomatic corps that Europe would require would be
"ambassadors for Christ."

A few Christian scholars who have been at pains to study the subject have deplored the lack of
any text book to which the student could turn. Canon A. Lukyn Williams has written: "It is much
to be wished that

some really trustworthy history of Christianity in relation to Jews were in existence." And more
recently Dr. Parkes in reviewing the available literature states: "Finally there is the question of
the Judeo-Christians. A number of books are quoted dealing with the rise of the Gentile Church,
but I doubt whether full justice has yet been done to this section of the early Church. At least, I
have not been able to find an adequate study of the subject."

Clearly, then, the gap is there to be filled; but the present work, constructive as it is, makes no
pretensions to be exhaustive: it rather outlines the cavity and indicates the materials which are
available to render it solid and permanent. It can claim, however, to be the very first attempt to
provide a connected account of Jewish Christianity from the first to the twentieth century. There
have been studies of limited periods, particularly of the first two centuries, and information of
one kind and another is to be found scattered up and down the pages of a veritable library of
ancient and modern authors, and where these are not mentioned in the text, I can only express a
general indebtedness to the authorities consulted. I have taken care to give full and exact
references, as these constitute the evidence for the statements made; and it on this account the
book seems too much like a string of quotations the intention has been to anticipate criticism on

many controversial points and to provide the general reader with the actual words of documents
with which he cannot be expected to be familiar, It is all the more necessary to chart the
landmarks and principal features when entering unexplored territory for which no map is in
existence. At least I have precedent of Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, whose Ecclesiastical
History is so indispensable, and whose introductory words so well reproduce my own situation.

Acknowledging that it is beyond my power to present the work perfect and
unexceptionable, I freely confess it will crave indulgence, especially since, as the
first of those that have entered upon the subject, we are attempting a kind of
trackless and unbeaten path. Looking up with prayer to God as our guide, we trust,
indeed, that we shall have the power of Christ as our aid, though we are totally
unable to find even the bare vestiges of those who may have traveled the way
before us; unless, perhaps, what is only present in the slight intimations, which
some in different ways have transmitted to us in certain partial narratives of the
times in which they lived; who, raising their voices before

us, like torchbearers at a distance and, as looking down from some commanding
height, call out and exhort us where we should walk, and whither direct our course
with certainty and safety. Whatsoever, therefore, we deem likely to be
advantageous to the proposed subject, we shall endeavor to reduce to a compact
body by historical narration. For this purpose we have collected the materials that
have been scattered by our predecessors, and culled, as from some intellectual
meadows, the appropriate extracts from ancient authors.

I have striven to be as impartial and just as a subject in which partiality and injustice have
previously played so large a part will allow. I believe that I have fairly represented the attitude of
the Gentile Church and of the Jewish people. I have not sought to gloss over the failings of the
Jewish Christians, while freeing them from a great deal of misrepresentation. The measure of my
faithfulness to what! deem to be the facts will be for the reader himself to judge. Criticism is
likely to come because of my treatment of the early days of Christianity, but I trust that readers
will be broadminded enough to concede my right of interpretation of the fragmentary data in the
way that! have done. The evidences have been accumulating, and partly due to the painstaking if
unpalatable researches of Dr. Robert Eisler, which tend to show that Jewish Christianity was a
much more fundamental thing, politically, socially and spiritually than ecclesiastical historians
have been disposed to admit. One day the whole story of Christian beginnings will have to be
rewritten, and any day may bring to light again part of the vanished record. Even that very
Gospel which the Nazarenes cherished may ere long be restored.

Having said so much by way of explanation of the nature and need for such a history, it is
necessary to add that there are contributory factors which make the publication of this work both
timely and essential. We can mark in our own day the beginnings of the return of the great
Gentile Churches to the simpler faith and Christology of the early Jewish Christians. During the
past century and a half there has been manifested a progressive re-orientation, a Zionism of faith.
Not only those who are Israelites by race have turned their hearts towards Jerusalem. The
attempts of the several denominations to model their government and order on what they believe
to be the lines laid down in the primitive Church, the renewal of foreign missionary activity,
phenomenal manifestations life the revival of prophecy and speaking with tongues, second

adventism, the intensified quest for the historical Jesus, the acceptance of their Messiah by
thousands of Jews, all these and many more are signs to the discerning that the wheel has turned
full circle, and that the message of salvation that went forth from Zion is returning to Zion again,
parallel with the dispersion and restoration of the Jewish people. If it is permissible to coin a new
word, this trend may best be described as the Rejudaissance of Christianity.

From the libraries of the Near East and the sands of Egypt many precious records of the early
church are being brought to light which can assist us in reconstructing its history and beliefs,
while the recovery of the ancient Gospel manuscripts enable the modern disciple to catch in ever
clearer accents the utterances of his Master.

It is being increasingly recognized how impossible is the attitude which would divorce
Christianity from its Jewish origin and associations. As Henry Ward Beecher wrote fifty years
ago:

the ignorance and superstition of medieval Europe may account for the prejudices
of the Dark Age. But how a Christian nowadays can turn from a Jew, I cannot
imagine. Christianity itself sucked at the bossom of Judaism. Our roots are in the
Old Testament. We are Jews ourselves gone to blossom and fruit; Christianity is
Judaism in evolution, and it would seem strange for the seed to turn against the
stock on which it was grown.

The state of affairs in Germany under the Hitler regime shows clearly that anti-Judaism is
equally anti-Christianity. The only alternative to both is a revived Paganism, and this, while it is
more blatantly flaunted by a section of the Nazis, is subtly reflected elsewhere in the Churches
by a modern Neo-Platonism. History does have a way of repeating itself, and it is to be
anticipated that before there can be a return to the original faith of the Prophet of Nazareth, there
will be a recrudescence of many ancient heresies. Theosophy and Spiritualism have already
restored Gnosticism to its place in the borderline of Christianity. The Church will do well to heed
the admonition of Isaiah to "Look unto Abraham you father, and unto Sarah that bare you."

As the times of the Gentiles run out it is probable that Jewish Christianity will steadily regain
its original position of authority and will enunciate simple and universal principles of Christian
belief in which the Unity of God and the Messiahship of Jesus will be the fundamentals,
acceptable alike to Jew and Gentile. Jewish Christians will become the intermedi-

aries between East and West, the healers of old wounds, the heralds of the Kingdom of God. For
these greater reasons which transcend the claims of scholarship the story of Jewish Christianity is
deserving of the utmost consideration, and those of us who can look at history with the eye of
faith may ask with Zangwill in his Blind Children:

Do we sport carelessly.
Blindly upon the verge
Of an Apocalypse?

Hugh J Schonfield

Chapter I

When the early ministry of Jesus was finished there remained as the fruits of his teaching a
number of Jews who were convinced that he was their expected Messiah.

Between these Jewish believers distributed among the towns and villages of Palestine, little or
no connection at first existed. Their life remained unaltered; they worshipped in the synagogues
with their fellow Jews, and were distinguished only by their adherence to the Galilean Wonder-
Worker, whose claims they no doubt pressed as occasion offered. The driving force of the future
Nazarene sect was concentrated in a small body of the Messiah's most intimate friends and some
members of his family, who, according to the account in Acts, took up residence in Jerusalem in
anticipation of his speedy and glorious return. This was the fundamental and the inspiration of
their teaching — the resurrection and ascension of the Messiah and his coming again in due
season to reestablish the kingdom of God and of Israel.

It was this belief, and the power of it, that invested the original community of humble persons,
fishermen and artisans, with a dignity and confidence of utterance that was electrifying and
contagious, and that ran like wildfire through the oppressed classes of the population and particu-
larly attracted the patriots and religious zealots, already stirred and exalted by Messianic visions.
This was the pregnant message, the "good news" for which they had been waiting, the great fact
born of actual knowledge and experience which anchored indefinite hope to the strong rack of
reality.

Under the leadership of Simon bar Yona [called Peter] the Galilean fanatics, as they were then
known, carried on an energetic propaganda in the name of Jesus, proclaiming his Messiahship in
the Temple courts, synagogues, markets, and everyplace of public assembly. As devout Jews,
they were regular attendants at the diets of worship, while they sustained their cause by informal
prayer and discussion at the houses of some of their number. To the Jewish authorities they
represented one of the many "Ways" with which Jerusalem was vexed. The capital, at this time,
was a hotbed of peculiar people offering infallible remedies for the nation's undoubted ills. They
had to be tolerated for the sake of peace, and were only interfered with when that peace was
endangered by their

loud-voiced activities.

The first glimpse of the Nazarenes is then as rugged men with enthusiasm burning in their
faces, with a thousand tongues to tell their Master's praise, proclaiming his coming to seething
masses of their compatriots aggravated by the domination of Rome and the tyranny of the
Saduccean hierarchy. Figures become fanciful at such times, but there must be something in that
first tale in the Acts of "three thousand souls added".... "five thousand men who had believed."

Eisler has overstressed the political aspect, but there is undoubted Iruth in what he says, that:

the announcement of the resurrection was originally disseminated among the
people by the Jewish Christians in connection with a purely political message and
with a distinctly political aim. The resurrection of Jesus was originally preached,
not to a circle of mystics, like the resurrection of the dying mystery gods or that of

the grass and com spirit rising again from the earth, as an illustration and guarantee
of the individual's immortality:

"Be of good cheer, O initiated ones: the god is saved, you too will find salvation
in your pains." No. The Jewish partisans of Jesus preached to the people that
certainty of the impending "liberation from bondage"; nor did they mean, like Paul,
liberation from the bondage of sin and wicked spirits, but quite literally liberation
from the yoke of their well known worldly oppressors. Jesus was to return and
liberate Israel from bondage in no other sense that King Arthur was believed by the
Welsh of the Middle Ages to return to free his people from the Saxon and Norman
oppressors.'

The mind of today can with difficulty conceive the sainted apostles of the Christian faith in the
setting of incipient revolution, conducting a propaganda which was half a revivalist campaign
and half a class war. To enter into the spirit of those days, to sympathize with the exuberant
communism, the jubilant fanaticism, that turned the narrow streets of Jerusalem and the very
steps of the Sanctuary into a battle-ground of explosive elements subversive of ordered
government, a great many traditional conceptions have to be sacrificed. The canonical
documents smooth away most of the rough edges, but the grim truth will not be gainsaid, and
through diverse channels wc obtain a picture more in keeping with the conditions as from tlic
pages of Josephus and the Talmud we

know them to have been.

In a fragment of the Gospel of Peter the disciples after the crucifixion are found in hiding for
fear of the authorities, "for we were sought for by them as malefactors, and as desiring to burn
the temple."

An uncensored edition of the Josippon states that, "In those days (i.e., of the Emperor Caius),
there were wars and quarrels in Judaea between the Pharisees and the brigands of our people who
followed the son of Joseph."

A very early tradition quoted by Clement of Alexandria from the Preaching of Peter, and
supported by Appolonius, has it that Jesus said to the apostles:

If anyone of Israel wishes to repent, and by my name to believe in God, his sins
shall be forgiven him. After twelve years go forth into the world, that no one may
say, "We have not heard. "^

There is at least this much of truth in the saying that it would appear that the followers of Jesus
in Jerusalem did not for a considerable time make any organized attempt to communicate with
believers in the provinces. The success of their preaching in the capital must, however, have
quickly necessitated some local organization. An indication of this may be found in Acts 6:1.

And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a
murmuring of the Hellenists (foreign-born Jews) against the Hebrews (home-born),
because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration.

This led, we are told, to the appointment of seven parnasim, deacons, to deal with the
distribution of alms. There is no direct evidence to show whether the adoption of this synagogal
custom implies the establishment of a Nazarene synagogue; but there is a certain amount of
indirect evidence to suggest it. Any group of Jews which comprised ten batlanim, men of leisure,
could found a synagogue, and there were numerous synagogues in Jerusalem representing
nationalities, trades, and no doubt "Ways" as well. Oesterley has proved that many elements in
the early Christian liturgy derive from the liturgy of the synagogue,^ and it is not, therefore,
unreasonable to suppose that those of the "Way of Jesus" did, in fact, establish a synagogue of
their own. Such a meeting house may have been situated, especially in view of the Hellenists,
close by that of the Freedmen, Cyrenians and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia,
with

whose members the deacon, Stephen, came into wordy conflict, with the result that he was
accused of blasphemy and hailed before the Jewish Ecclesiastical Council. Saul of Tarsus, a
Cilician, was quite possibly a prominent member of the very synagogue which laid information
against him. It is expressly stated, that when Stephen was found guilty, Saul "was consenting
unto his death," and some acquaintance with the witnesses who stoned Stephen is clearly
implied.

The authorities had already had to take notice of the Nazarenes through the outspokenness of
Peter and John, and they were probably very glad of the opportunity to curb the growing
influence of these disturbing element in the city. Their harshness in dealing with Stephen seems
due to their determination to make an example of him. The outbreak against the Nazarenes which
followed Stephen's execution does not appear to have been authorized by the Council: Saul,
himself, seems to have been the instigator of the attack. It was he, who "breathing out
threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, and desired
of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of 'the Way,' whether they
were men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.'"* The Nazarene Acts, reflected in
the Clementine Recognitions, shows him breaking up a disputation between the apostles and the
chief priests

like a madman, inciting everyone to murder, shouting, "What do ye? Why do ye
hesitate? Ye sluggish and inert! Why do we not lay hands upon them, and pull all
these fellows to pieces." When he had said this, he first, seizing a brand, set the
example of smiting.^

The same account goes on to relate that Saul even attacked James, the brother of Jesus, hurling
him down the temple steps, and leaving him for dead; and that he set out for Damascus because
he believed that Peter had fled there. In fact, however, the Nazarine leader had taken refuge in
Jericho.

However caused, the riot temporarily scattered the Jerusalem community, with profound
results on the development of Jewish Christianity; the disciples that were scattered abroad "went
everywhere preaching the word." Not only were new adherents gained from among the
Samaritans and provincial Jews, but contact must also have been made with many who had come
under the personal influence of Jesus during his ministry. The response gave the apostles a new
vision. They sent Peter and John to

Samaria. The result was that ma very short time branches of the parent community had sprung up
"throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria," and we find Peter paying them an official visit,
no doubt to organize the communities as well as to encourage them in their faith. Other disciples
had gone as far as Phenice, Cyprus and Antioch, preaching to the Jews of the Dispersion. To
meet this further development Saul, now an ardent adherent of the faith he had lately persecuted,
was called from Tarsus by Barnabus and installed at Antioch, where the Nazarenes first began to
be called Christianoi (Christians), the Greek rendering of Messianists.

So impressive had the Nazarene party now become that the civil authorities joined hand with
the religious in a belated effort to suppress the movement. James, the son of Zebedee, one of the
most active members of the Jerusalem community, was seized by order of King Herod Agrippa,
and beheaded, while Peter was imprisoned, but providentially escaped. A touching incident
connected with the death of James is recorded by Clement of Rome. He relates, "that the man
who led him to the judgment seat, seeing him bearing his testimony to the faith, and moved by
the fact, confessed himself a Christian. Both, therefore, were led away to die, on their way, he
entreated James to be forgiven of him, and James, considering a little, replied, 'Peace be with
thee,' and kissed him; and then both were beheaded at the same time."^

It now became evident to the apostles and elders that a more elaborate organization was
necessary if the scattered communities of believers were to be kept together. The movement was
in every way a Jewish one, and its leaders were closely identified with Jewish affairs. There was
no split with the Synagogue, and it was only natural that the government of the communities
should be conducted on current lines. This required the establishment of local synagogues with
their officials, president, deacons, precentor and teachers, three of whom would form a tribunal
for the judgment of cases concerning money matters, thefts, losses, immorality, admission of
proselytes, etc. This local council in turn would be responsible to the higher court in Jerusalem,
to which graver charges and cases would be referred. The organization also provided for itinerant
teachers sent out from the central authority, whose duty it was to exhort and expound the true
doctrine, and also to collect dues for the maintenance of the organization. We gather that this
system was adopted by the Nazarenes, the leadership of the visiting teachers being given to
Peter, while

James the brother of Jesus was elected Nasi, or president of the supreme Council, both on
account of his kinship to the Messiah and his noted piety. As Schweitzer rightly point out:

For the Christians of the churches in Asia minor and Greece, the Church at
Jerusalem was an authority, in the same sense and to the same extent as the
Sanhedrin was for the Synagogues of the Deaspora. The collection which they
made for it was not so much a gift sent to the poor as a levy comparable with the
Temple tax of the Jewish proselj^es, which they paid to it.^

Some traces of what must have been prior to the disastrous war of A.D. 67-70 a very powerful
and systematic organization still meets us a little later in the Dedache, a manual for the conduct
of a Christian community, and the charge of Peter in the Clementine Recognitions to

observe the greatest caution, that you believe no teacher unless he bring from
Jerusalem the testimonial of James the Lord's brother, or of whosoever may come

after him. For no one, unless he has gone up thither and there has been approved as
a fit and faithful teacher for preaching the word of the Messiah, unless, I say, he
brings a testimonial thence, is by any means to be received.**

James is styled "the bishop of bishops, who rules Jerusalem, the holy Church of the Hebrew,
and the churches everywhere excellently founded by the providence of God."'

An event now occurred which was to have far-reaching consequences for the future. The
Antioch community decided to send out a trial mission to Asia Minor with the object of reaching
the Jews of those regions and, if possible, the Gentiles also. The Antioch ecclesia itself seems
from the first to have included a number of proselytes from heathenism, and the intention to
evangelize those of their own blood is as intelligible as it is creditable. Saul, shortly afterwards
known as Paul, and Barnabas were set apart for this enterprise, which had a precedent in the
practice of the Pharisees. They started out by way of Seleucia, and then set sail for Cyprus.
Travelling across the island they again set sail from Paphos, and proceeded via Perga in
Pamphylia, Pisidian Antioch and Iconium, to Lystra and Derbe, meeting with many adventures,
and receiving an unlooked-for response to their preaching on the part of the Gentiles. These
Gentiles were among those already attracted to Ju-

daism. Around every Jewish proseuche, or worshipping center, in the Roman provinces, were to
be found many Gentiles attendant on a teaching which impressed them by its simplicity of
theology and emphasis on personal holiness. To diem, the Messianic message, which promised
personal salvation and Immediate reception into the fellowship of faith without circumcision and
other restrictive rites, was doubly welcome. Paul and Barnabas were therefore able to return to
Antioch well satisfied with their success. "And when they were come, and had gathered the
community together, they rehearsed all that God had done with them, and how he had opened the
door of faith unto the Gentiles."'"

The conversion of the Gentiles, however, presented an acute problem. What was to be the
status of these converts? Were they to be regarded as "proselytes of righteousness" (full
proselytes), subject in all respects to the laws of Israel, or as "proselytes of the gate" (half
proselytes), subject only to the primary Noahic laws? Opinion was divided, and feeling ran high.
Being of such a grave character the question was referred to Jerusalem. Thither Paul and
Barnabas, with some other, repaired. The supreme Council was immediately convened, presided
over by James, and the whole matter was thrashed out. After hearing the arguments on both
sides, the President gave judgment to the effect that (the evidence in accordance with the
Scriptures warranted the conclusion that God was calling out from among the Gentiles a people
for His Name, who, without becoming Jews, were to share with them all the privileges of the
covenants of promise." By this decision believing Gentiles were admitted to an associate-
membership of the House of Israel, subject only to the Noahic laws, which satisfied all parties.

It was necessary, said the Nazarenes, that the Gentiles should be called into the room of those
who remained unbelieving, so that the number might be filled up which has been shown to
Abraham.'^

It was agreed that the two organizations should be kept distinct, though closely allied to one
another. James, Peter and John gave to Paul and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship; that the

latter should labor among the Gentiles, while the former went to the Jews.'^ The findings of the
Council were embodied in the historic letter which became the charter of Gentile Christianity.

The apostles and elders and brethren send greetings unto the brethren which are of
the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia:

Forasmuch as we have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled
you with words, subverting your souls, saying. Be circumcised and keep the Law:
to whom we gave no commandment; it seemed good unto us, being assembled with
one accord, to send chosen men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, men
who have hazarded their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus the Messiah.

We have sent, therefore, Judas and Silas, who shall also tell you the same thing by
word.

For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden
than these essential things; that ye abstain from meat offered to idols, and from
blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep
yourselves, ye shall do well.

Fare ye well.'"*

Thus happily ended this crisis in Jewish Christian history. The decree was delivered to the
community at Antioch, "and when they had read ii, they rejoiced for the consolation." Shortly
afterwards, Paul and Silas set out on a second missionary journey, confirming the Gentile
believers in their faith and giving them copies of the decree to keep.

Chapter II

Affairs In Judaea now began to assume an ominous appearance. Political and economic
conditions had been growing steadily worse. Soon the mutterings of the coming storm were
heard; mutterings of an enslaved people straining at its bonds.

The dread herald of the cataclysm was the gaunt spectre of want. The peasantry, already
groaning under the combined tyranny of the civil and religious authorities, were driven to the
verge of madness by a great famine which swept the country in the reign of Claudius Caesar. It is
on record that the community at Antioch contributed according to their means to the relief of
their brethren in Jerusalem,'^ and Josephus tells of the generous help given to the starving
citizens by Helena. Queen of the Adiabene, a convert to Judaism.'^

In this desperate situation the tax-yielded wealth of the Sadducean chief priests and Herodians,
like that of the high Church dignitaries and nobility before the French revolution, became an ever
increasing source of bitterness to the suffering populace, calling forth the denunciations of all
right, thinking men. Patriots, Zealots and Nazarenes, made common cause against the
oppressors. There is some evidence to show that James the brother of Jesus was made unofficial
leader of a united people's party. The title given him. Oblias, which Eusebius renders,
"Protection of the People" (perioche to lao), the tenor of his Epistle, the fact that his influence
was so feared by the high priestly party that they illegally put him to death, and that this caused
such a popular outcry that the responsible high priest was deposed and the revolt accelerated, all
point to this conclusion. Eisler goes so far as to suggest that the tradition that James wore the
diadem (petalon) of the High Priest and had the right of entry into the sanctuary may be
construed to mean that the brother of Jesus was in fact elected by the people to this holy office in
opposition to the official high priest Ananias.'^ The evidence offered on this point though
interesting is far from conclusive. It does, however, say much for the growth and power of
Jewish Christianity, and far more than ecclesiastical and lay historians have ever allowed, that a
brother of Jesus and head of the Jewish Christian communities, should be chosen as the
mouthpiece and hope of loyal Israel — a prophet of the revolt. The records of this period of
Jewish history are scattered and

fragmentary. Not from the biased statements of Josephus alone, but from the New Testament, the
Talmud, and the contemporary Jewish apocalyptic writings, must the picture or the great struggle
for freedom and righteousness be drawn — a struggle in which Jewish Christianity played a not
ignoble, though hitherto unrecognized, part.

As for the high priest Ananias (the younger), writes Josephus, he increased in credit
every day... for he was a great money maker... He also had servants who were very
wicked, who joined themselves to the popular bullies, and went to the threshing-
floors, and took away, by force, the tithes that belonged to the priests, and did not
refrain from beating such as would not give these tithes to them. And the chief
priests acted in the same manner as the servants of Ananias, without anyone being
able to prevent them. With the result that priests who were of old accustomed to be
supported with those tithes, died of starvation.'*

The Talmud has even preserved the people's cries, with which they besieged the high priest's
palace:

Down with the Boethusians!

Down with their bludgeons!
Down with the Hananites!

Down with their viper hissings!
Down with the Cantherites!

Down with the libels!
Down with the family of Ishmael ben Phabi!

Down with their blows with the fist!
They themselves are high priests,
Their Sons are treasurers.
Their sons-in-law are captains of the temple.
And their servants strike the people with staves.''

As the misery of the people increased, so much the brighter burnt the flame of Messianic hope.
On every hand portents were seen, rumors were heard, false prophets and false Messiahs began
to make their appearance, deluding the sufferers with extravagant promises. Calculations of the
length of the tribulation were eagerly read; prophecies of stupendous miracles about to take place
implicitly believed. Some there were who betook themselves to prayer and fasting hat God might
remember His people, others who looked to the strength of heir own right hand for deliverance.
Of the former were the noble R.

Zadok and James the Just, of the latter were Eleazar bar Dinai and the descendants of Judas of
Galilee.

We may imagine the Nazarenes of Jerusalem deeply moved and their own faith greatly
strengthened by all that was taking place, going about with redoubled zeal, warning and
exhorting. Others might speculate they knew. Jesus was about to descend from heaven at the
head of the angelic hosts to take vengeance on the enemies and set up his glorious kingdom.
Thousands of recruits rallied to the standard of the Messiah including a great company of the
unfortunate priests. Through the han of tradition and cryptic imagery the opposing forces are
dimly seen — Michael and his angels battling with the Dragon and his angels; a Nazarene-Zealot
alliance, the followers of Moses and the Lamb, a remnant of Israel 'which keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of the Messiah Jesus" withstanding the Beast, the
power of Rome, and the False Prophet, the apostate Jewish high priesthood

Despite imprisonment, banishment and execution of leaders the "party of liberty" continued to
gain ground, and the later Procurators Antonius Felix and Porcius Festus found the situation
more and more difficult to control. Whole the more peaceable of the Nazarenes and Zealots were
content to fulminate against the oppressors, certain violent elements could not be restrained from
taking the law into their own hands. Felix succeeded in capturing Eleazar bar Dinai by a trick
and sending him to Caesar, but other took his place, and soon Jerusalem awoke to a new terror,
the Sicarii, a desperate league of daggermen, who did not stop at murdering the pro-Roman chief
priests and wealthy citizens even within the sacred precincts of the temple. It is probable that it

was at this time that the Nazarenes assumed the designation of Ebionites, signifying the contrast
between themselves and the avaricious apostates and claiming that they were the true heirs of the
Messianic kingdom. The writings of the author of the Apocalypse of Baruch and James' epistle,
which certainly reflect this period, can have done little to calm the passions that were aroused, in
spite of the latter' s plea for patience. And there are curious points of resemblance which further
argue some association between the Zealots and the Nazarenes. It must have been exceedingly
difficult of the followers of Jesus not to be caught up in the general excitement and carried away
by the more militant revolutionaries. Take for instance the follow-

mg passages:
Baruch

For that time will arise which brings affliction; for it will come and pass by with
quick vehemence, and it will be turbulent coming in the heat of indignation. And it
will come to pass in those days that all the inhabitants of the earth will be moved
one against another, because they know not that my judgment has drawn nigh. For
there will not be found many wise at that time, and the intelligent will be but few:
moreover, even those who know will most of all be silent. And there will be many
rumors and tidings not a few, and the words of portents will be shown, and
promises not a few will be recounted, and some of them will prove idle, and some
of them will be confirmed .... And whilst they are meditating these things, then zeal
will arise in those of whom they thought not, and passion will seize him who is
peaceful, and many will be roused in anger to injure many, and they will rouse up
armies in order to shed blood, and in the end they will perish together with them.
And it will come to pass at the self-same time, that a change of times will
manifestly appear to every man, by reason of which in all those times they were
polluted and practised oppression, and walked every man in his own words, and
remembered not the law of the Mighty One. Therefore, a fire will consume their
thoughts, and in flame will the meditations of their veins be tried; for the Judge will
come and will not tarry. ^°

James

Go now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth eaten. Your gold and silver
are cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your
flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold the
hire of the laborers which have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back
by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears
of the Lord of Hosts. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton: ye
have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed
the just; and he doth

not resist you. Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold,
the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and bath long patience
for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stabhish your

hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another,
brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the Judge standeth at the door.^'

These utterances read almost like a commentary on the words of Josephus:

Now the affairs of the Jews grew worse and worse continually. For the country was
again full of bands of robbers, and of impostors who deluded the multitude ....
(The former) slew both their own enemies and those whom other men wanted them
to kill for money, not only in other parts of the city, but some even in the temple
itself, for they had the boldness to murder men there, without thinking of the
impiety of which they were guilty. And this seems to me the reason why God, out
of hatred of these men's wickedness, rejected our city, and no longer judged the
temple sufficiently pure for him to dwell therein, but brought the Romans upon us,
and threw a fire upon the city to purge it. And impostors and deceivers urged the
people to follow them into the wilderness, and pretended that they would exhibit
manifest wonders and signs that should be performed by the providence of God.^^

On the other hand, promises of the pleasures of the Millennial Kingdom were held out to the
stricken people.

The days will come, in which vines shall grow, each having ten thousand shoots,
and on each shoot ten thousand branches, and on each branch, ten thousand twigs,
and on each twig ten thousand clusters, and on each cluster ten thousand grapes,
and each grape when pressed shall yield five and twenty measures of wine. ^^

It cannot be fortuitous that such a promise of abundance should be quoted by Papias as a
saying of Jesus, and again in the Apocalypse ofBaruch.^'^ We can hardly fail to conclude
that the Zealot-Nazarenes and the Zealot-Pharisees were drawn together during the struggle
by a common aim and not very divergent expectations. In fact, the only real distinction was
the Nazarene equation, the Messiah is Jesus.

But while this distinction was not of great moment to the bolder sort of

Zealots, it was of enormous importance to the particularist Pharisees atid to the Sadducees:
according to Old Russian version of Josephus it was the subject of an inscription set in the
Temple balustrade, and it was the cause of the death of James the Just.

The Judean sky was heavily overcast with thunderclouds. The atmosphere was electric. The
first hot drops that were to release the pent up fury of the elements came blood red from the
mangled body of the venerable President of the Nazarenes. His martyrdom signalized the end of
moderate counsels.

As Festus was now dead — writes Josephus — and Albinus (the new procurator) was still
on the road, so he (the high priest Ananias) assembled the Sanhedrin of judges, and brought
before them the brother of Jesus, who was called Christ, whose name was James, and some
others, and having accused them as breakers of the Law, he delivered them over to be stoned.
But those who seemed the most moderate of the citizens, and strict in the observance of the
Law, disliked what was done; and secretly sent to King Agrippa, beseeching him to bid
Ananias to act so no more, for what he had already done was not done rightly. ^^

A more elaborate account of the death of James is given by the second-century Jewish
Christian historian Hegesippus:

As there were many therefore of the rulers that believed, there arose a tumult among the
Jews, Scribes and Pharisees, saying that there was danger, that the people would now expect
Jesus as the Messiah. They came together therefore, and said to James, We entreat thee,
restrain the people, who are led astray after Jesus, as if he were the Messiah. We entreat thee
to persuade all that are coming to the feast of the Passover rightly concerning Jesus; for we
all have confidence in thee. For we and all the people bear thee witness that thou art just, and
thou respectest not persons. Persuade, therefore, the people not to be led astray by Jesus, for
we and all the people have great confidence in thee. Stand therefore upon a pinnacle of the
temple, that thou mayest be conspicuous on high, and thy words may be easily heard by all
the people; for all the tribes have come together on account of the Passover with some of the
Gentiles also.

These Scribes and Pharisees therefore placed James on a pinnacle of the temple,
and cried out to him. O thou just one, whom we ought all to believe, since the
people are led astray after Jesus that was crucified, declare to us what is the door of
salvation. And he answered with a loud voice. Why ask ye me concerning Jesus the
Son of Man? He is now sitting in the heavens on the right hand of Great Power, and
is about to come again on the clouds of heaven. And as many were confirmed, and
gloried in this testimony of James, and cried, Hosanna to the son of David, these
same priests and Pharisees said to one another. We have erred in affording such
testimony to Jesus, but let us go up and cast him down, that they may dread to
believe in him. And they cried out. Oh! Oh! the Just himself is deceived, and they
fulfilled that which is written in Isaiah, Let us take away the just, because he is
offensive to us; wherefore, they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Going up,
therefore, they cast down the Just one, saying to one another, let us stone James the
Just.

And they began to stone him, as he did not die immediately when cast down; but turning
round he knelt down saying, I beseech thee, Lord God and Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Thus they were stoning him, when one of the priests of the sons of
Rechab, a descendant of the Rechabites spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet, cried out, saying.
Cease! What are you doing? The Just is praying for you. But one of them, a fuller, beat out
the brains of the Just with the club that he used to beat out clothes. Thus he suffered
martyrdom, and they buried him on the spot, where his tombstone still remains, close by the
Temple. He became a faithful witness, both to the Jews and Greeks, that Jesus is the
Messiah.^'^

Reading between the lines of these accounts of the death of James, then is a strong suspicion
of a premeditated conspiracy to destroy this important personality if his testimony should prove
unsatisfactory, and to do so in a way that would appear to be accidental.

This last act of treachery on the part of Ananias and his partisans, however, alienated the
sympathies of those who still venerated the chief priests on account of their sacred office. The
murdered saint was speedily avenged; for in the early days of the war with Rome Ananias and

most of the other chief priests were slain by the Idumeans whom the zealots had brought into
Jerusalem, and their bodies were cast out without burial.

Chapter III

At this stage of affairs in Judaea it is necessary to digress a little, only however, to record
circumstances of another kind, but equally unhappy, elsewhere.

After the Council of Jerusalem, Paul had set out with Silas on a second missionary journey,
creating new Christian centers in Phrygia, Galatia, Macedonia and Achaia, under the terms of
agreement reached at the Council. But after the lapse of some years strange tales began to filter
through to Jerusalem. Paul, carried away by the success of his preaching to the Gentiles, had
begun to magnify his office. He had declared that "the just shall live by faith," and that "by the
deeds of the Law shall no flesh be justified.^' He bade his converts not to be "entangled again
with the yoke of bondage." He was reported to have said, "Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye
be circumcised, the Messiah shall profit you nothing."^** He was further quoted, but without
foundation to have taught, "Let us do evil that good may come."^'

All this seemed bad enough, but soon other messages began to arrive telling of the unbridled
licentiousness which had broken out among the Gentile Christians. To do Paul justice, the
unexpected literalness with which his words had been taken, shocked him immeasurable.

The Epistles of St. Paul — writes S. Baring Gould — exhibit him grappling with this
terrible evil, crying out in anguish against the daily growing scandals, insisting that
his converts should leave off their "rioting and drunkenness, chambering and
wantonness, strife and envying;" that their bodies were temples of the spirit of God,
not to be defiled with impurity; that it was in vain to deceive themselves by
boasting their faith and appealing to the freedom of Grace. ^°

On receipt of the sad news of the conditions prevailing in the Gentile communities, a circular
letter was issued by the leaders of Jewish Christianity in the name of Peter, as one well-known to
the Asiatic Christians. This letter it is unnecessary to quote at length, but the Gentile Christians
are strongly warned against "those who have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray,
following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who "allure through the lust of the flesh, through
much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error," who "while they

promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption."^'

Henceforth, by the bulk of Jewish Christians, Paul was anathematized as a apostate from the
Law,^^ and his way and theirs lay ever apart.

The strain of these events told on the apostle of the Gentiles. Feeling his helplessness, he, who
had for so long been independent, turned like a tired child to its mother, and made all haste to
Jerusalem. Taking leave of the Ephesian elders at Miletus, he set sail for Palestine and landed at
Tyre. When he reached Jerusalem, and the apostles saw the weary figure, they had nothing in
their hearts but sympathy, and said to him:

Thou seest, brother, how many myriads of Jews there are which believe; and they are all
zealous of the Law: and they are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are

among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their
children, neither to walk after the customs. What is it therefore, the multitude must needs
come together for they will hear that thou are come. Do therefore this that we say to thee:
we have four men which have a vow upon them; them take and purify thyself with them.
That all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee are
nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the Law.^^

Paul willingly obeyed, and was not hypocritical in so doing, for though he had fought
strenuously for Gentile liberty he had never advocated the giving up by Jews of their ancestral
customs, and he himself remained an observant Jew to the end of his life. In his last recorded
speech he could say with sincerity, "I have committed nothing against the people or customs of
our fathers."^"* It is unnecessary to labor this point, but on at least two occasions Paul left his
mission field to hasten to Jerusalem for an impending festival. This time, as the apostles had
foreseen, while at worship in the temple, he was recognized by certain Jews of Asia, who at once
made a clamor. Such a disturbance in those violent days was sufficient to rouse the whole city.
And as they went about to kill Paul tidings came to the commander of the Roman garrison, ever
on the alert, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar, who immediately took soldiers and centurions
and succeeded in securing Paul and carrying him into the Castle of Antonia, overlooking the
temple area, under the impression that he was an

Egyptian false prophet who had lately been making mischief

Josephus records of this man:

He was a cheat and impostor, and yet got credited as a prophet, and came to Judaea, and
got together thirty thousand deluded men, whom he led round from the wilderness to the
mount, which was called the Mount of Olives, and intended to break into Jerusalem by force
from that place; and if he could but once conquer the Roman garrison and the people, he
intended to domineer over them by the assistance of those bodyguards of his that were to
break into the city with him. But Felix prevented his attempt, and met him with his Roman
soldiers, and all the people assisted Felix against him, so that, when it came to a battle, the
Egyptian ran away with a few others, but most of those that were with him were either killed
or taken alive; and the rest of the multitude dispersed every one to their own homes, and
there concealed themselves. ^^

Having made known his identity to the Roman commander, Paul was presently brought before
the Council of the Priests, presided over by the insolent and high-handed Ananias. Hardly had he
commenced his defence before this unworthy high priest, true to his character, ordered him to be
smitten on the mouth. Realizing that there would be no justice fc him in such an assembly, Paul
attempted to create a division between the Pharisee and Sadducee members by claiming to be a
Pharisee, and appealing to his faith in the resurrection, a doctrine which the Sadduce denied. The
desired result was obtained, and the council broke up in disorder. Paul was taken back under
guard into the Antonia.

The next day Paul's nephew brought information to the castle of conspiracy to assassinate
him, upon hearing which the Roman commander determined to send Paul secretly to Caesar to
Felix, and wrote the following letter in explanation:

Claudias Lysias, unto the most excellent governor Felix, greeting.

This man was taken of the Jews and should have been killed of them. Then came I with an
army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman. And when I would have
known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth unto their council; whom
I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge
worthy of death or bonds. And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait

for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say
before thee what they had against him.

Farewell

In due course Ananias with some of the elders arrived at Caesarea bringing with them an
orator named Tertullus to state their case before Felix, accusing Paul of being a mover of
sedition, and a ring-leader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Paul ably defended himself, but the case
was adjourned. For the next two years he was kept in custody at Caesarea because he would not
bribe Felix to release him. But after two years Porcius Festus succeeded Felix; "and Felix willing
to show the Jews a pleasure left Paul bound. "^^ This attempt to placate the Jewish authorities,
with whom Felix was in bad odor, was unsuccessful, and they sent a deputation after him to
accuse him to Nero. From this he only escaped punishment through the influence of his brother
Pallas.

No sooner was Festus installed in his office than further representations were made against
Paul by Ananias and his adherents, upon which Paul appealed to Caesar, to whom accordingly he
was sent not long after. But before his last journey westward, Paul had a unique opportunity of
declaring his faith in the Messiah before no less a dignitary that Agrippa II, the last titular king of
the Jews, who with his sister Berenice had come to Caesarea to greet Festus.

About the same time that Paul arrived in Rome, it would appear that Peter in the course of his
pastoral visitations had come there also. Tradition, at any rate, brings these two great Jewish
Christians together before the curtain falls on their eventful lives. Each had contributed his
share towards setting up the kingdom of God among men, and though often opposed to one
another in policy, both were united in an undying devotion to the one whom they believed to
by God's Messiah. The Acts of Peter and Paul toucMm^y records their last meeting: "And
seeing each other they wept for joy: and long embracing each other, they bedewed each other
with their tears." In the same document the Roman Christians declare: "We have believed and
do believe, that as God does not separate the two great lights which He has made, so He is not
to part you from each other, neither Peter from Paul, nor Paul from Peter."

The two apostles are believed to have suffered martyrdom about the same time, Peter by
crucifixion head downwards, and Paul by beheading. They had fought a good fight, they had
finished the course,

they had kept the faith: henceforth, there was laid up for them a crown righteousness, which the
Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give them at that day.

31
Chapter IV

Under the next two procurators of Judaea, Albinus and Gessius Florus, the cup of Israel's
misfortunes overflowed. These officials made common cause with the brigands who were
overrunning the country, receiving a share of the spoils in return for official protection,

so that there were no bounds set to the nation's miseries; but the unhappy Jews,
being unable to bear the devastations which the robbers made among them, were all
forced to leave their own habitations and flee away, as if they could dwell better
anywhere else in the world among foreigners. And why need I say any more —
continues Josephus — for it was Florus who forced us to take up armies against the
Romans, as we thought it better to be destroyed at once than little by little."

Among those who now began to leave the Holy City until the indignation could be overpast
were the majority of the Nazarenes and the moderate members of the Pharisaic party. The
former, under the leadership of Ion(?) the son of Cleophas, a cousin of Jesus who had succeeded
James, sought refuge in the neighborhood of Pella in the Decapolis; the latter, (?)er Jochanan the
son of Zakkai, retired to Yavneh on the sea coast. What impelled both parties to take this course
was a belief that the prophecies concerning the Last Days were being fulfilled before their eyes.

Ancient Scriptures had prefigured the destruction of the temple (the holy house built of cedars)
in the doom of Lebanon. "Behold the Lord, the Lord of Hosts shall lop the bough with terror: and
the high ones (?)tature shall be hewn down, and the haughty ones shall be humbled, and (?)anon
shall fall by a mighty one .... Open thy doors, O Lebanon, that the (?) may devout thy cedars."^**
In addition, the Jewish Christians had the (?)r warnings of the Messiah.^'

This is not the place to deal with such a controversial question, but to the (?)ter there seems to
be strong evidence that the Nazareth of the New Testament was not situated in western Galilee,
but across the Jordan in the Decapolis, and that it is for this reason that the Jewish Christians
took refuge there, where their descendants remain to this day.

Soon, all too soon, the worst fears of the moderate citizens were justified. War with Rome was
declared, and, after a temporary setback Roman arms, the forces of Vespasian like another
Noahic flood. Swept over the country. Galilee fell, then northern Judaea, until on a day the

watcher on the walls of Zion could catch the glint of sunlight on the Roman eagles in the
surrounding valley.

The scope of this history excludes a description of those awful years. Jewish agony which
culminated in the destruction of the Temple. Jewish reminiscences of the war reveal by their
confused chronology, their vi(?) and exaggerated accounts of slaughter and slavery, how terrible
was their impression of the ghastly tragedy left on the national consciousness. "For seven years,"
it is said, "the nations of the world cultivated their vineyards with no other manure than the blood
of Israel. '^°

In light of these events the warnings of Jesus took on a contemporary coloring. According to
one evangelist his prophecy had run:

And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains;
and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the
countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which
are written may be fulfilled. But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that
give suck in those days? For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath
upon this people. And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led
away captive into all nations; and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles
until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."*'

This, however, is not the only Jewish Christian reference to war. The Book of Revelation, the
interpretation of which is so disputed owing to the general ignorance of Jewish Christianity,
message from one of the Nazarene leaders, deported like many others after the war, to the
Christian communities in Asia Minor, explaining them, necessarily in cryptic language because
of the Roman athorities the state of affairs in Judaea, and bidding them hold fast to their faith
these calamities were signs of the Lord's speedy return. "These sayings are faithful and true," he
writes, "and the Lord God of the holy prophets hath sent his messenger to show unto his servants
the things which shortly be done." How the scroll was smuggled out of Patmos and reached its
destination tradition does not record; but its contents are illuminating that no writer of Jewish
Christian history can afford to neglect them."*^

John, the author, explains that while in exile on the island of Patmos

was commanded in a vision to write a book and send it to the seven strategic Christian
communities of Asia, narrating the course of redemptive history, past, present and future. Each
of the communities to whom the Revelation is sent receives a separate admonition accompanied
by a warning to look for the real meaning underlying the imagery. "He that bath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.""*^

The first part of the Revelation follows the same lines as the preceding chapters of this work.
All that has transpired since the Ascension is incomprehensible apart from the Messiah, who
alone can open the book of God's purposes (ch. 5). The most significant events that preceded the
war with Rome are briefly passed in review. The seer refers to the early conquests of the Faith,
and then to the general unrest that prevailed in Palestine. He speaks of the famine in the reign of
Claudius Caesar, and the misery and anarchy that followed in its wake: when Death stalked
abroad, and men perished by the sword and hunger, and by the ravages of the brigands (the wild
beast of the earth), who had come out of their mountain dens. Next comes an allusion to the
persecution which the Jewish Christians suffered at the hands of the Jewish and Roman
authorities, and their cry to God for justice in language reminiscent of the Epistle of James,
ending with the forceful description of the reign of terror under the prouratorship of Gessius
Florus (ch. 6). The judgments are now about to fall on Jerusalem, but not before the servants of
God are sealed (ch. 7). A brief and dramatic pause follows, and then the trumpets of judgment
sound, and the land reels under a deluge of hail and fire and blood (ch. 8). There is the clank of
cavalry, the tramp of armies, all the denizens of the pit are let loose; mailed Romans, long-haired
mercenaries, locusts and scorpions invade the unhappy country (ch. 9). The scenes in the
detracted city are dealt with in chapter 11; the last witnesses are slain and their unburied bodies
are cast out; earthquakes (assaults) shatter the walls; Jerusalem is to be trodden down of the

Gentiles for the prophetic period of a time, times, and a half

As to the present, the seer writes that the Palestinean Jewish Christians are safe in the desert,
having escaped the general destruction (ch. 12). Moreover, he says, Rome's triumph is to be
short-lived. After the conquest of Palestine "all the world wondered at the Beasf ' "Who is like
unto the Beast (Rome)?" was the universal cry. "Who is able to make war with him?" (13:3-4)
Then comes the prophecy, "If any man have an ear, let him hear. He that leadeth into captivity
shall go into captivity;

he that killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and faith of the
saints" (13:9-10).

With this summary of past and present events the seer goes on to outline the future. The
Roman Empire is about to feel the mighty hand of God; but before the vials of wrath are poured
out a last opportunity of repentance is to be given the nations. "And I saw another angel fly in the
midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to proclaim unto them that dwell on the earth, and
to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice. Fear God, and
give glory to him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters" (14:6-7).
The imagery of the succeeding chapters runs almost parallel to the judgments on Jerusalem, only
with added horrors, illustrating the saying of Peter, "For the time of judgment is come that
judgment must begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall be the end of them
that obey not the gospel of God?""^ As in Judaea, so in the Diaspora, God has faithful servants
"that had gotten the victory over the Beast, and over his image, and over his mark" (15:2). They
stand on the shore of the Red Sea of Fire in which the armies of the neo-Egyptians (Romans) are
perishing, and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb (15:2-4). Chapter 16 describes the
judgments that are to overtake Rome. Pestilence strikes the adherents of the Beast; the waters are
dyed crimson with the blood of the slain; thousands perish by fire and famine; the eastern powers
rise in revolt; false counsellors urge on Rome and her allies to their doom at Armageddon, where
East and West meet in a mutually destructive conflict. The chapter closes with an image of a
"great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent," a good instance of a seer's
crypticism of which the meaning has been preserved. It happens that Josephus, describing the
siege of Jotapata by Vespasian, states, "Then simultaneously the catapults hurled lances with a
great noise, and stones of the weight of a talent were thrown by the engines for hurling stones.'"*^

The fall of Rome herself is foretold under the figure of Babylon (chs. 17-18). At her
overthrow, the hallelujahs of the saints are heard; the Messiah rides forth at the head of the
angelic hosts to complete the discomfiture of the enemy; the Millennium is ushered in (chs. 19-
20).

The seer, however, has not finished his message. There is to be a final outbreak of rebellion by
the forces of evil, instantly quelled, after which follows the Last Judgment and the creation of a
new heaven and a new earth; the new Jerusalem "whose builder and maker is God" becomes a

lasting habitation for the righteous (chs. 20-22).

Such in all too brief compass is this great Jewish Christian apocalypse, embodying the belief
of the faithful Jewish followers of the Messiah, which nerved them in all their terrible sufferings
of those days. "He which testifieth these things saith. Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so,

come, Lord Jesus." Who shall say that their faith in the immediate judgment of Rome, and the
return of the Messiah in glory, was unjustified! Had not Jesus himself, when on earth, stated
categorically:

Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the
moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers
of the heavens shall be shaken; and then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in
heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the son of
Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. "^

Such was also the faith of the non-Christian Jewish exiles, based on the study of the prophetic
writings. After the fatal words "Lebanon shall fall by a mighty one" did there not follow
immediately "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse"?"^^ proving that the
Messiah would come shortly after the destruction of the temple.

Nazarenes and Pharisee had yet to learn that "the Lord is not slack concerning his promises, as
some men count slackness; but is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.'*'*

Chapter V

The political crisis in Jewish affairs engendered among the Churches of the Empire a coldness
and aloofness towards the Jewish Christians, which, after the second Jewish revolt in the reign of
Hadrian, led to almost complete separation. The Roman Christians could not be expected to
sympathize with the national aspirations of the Nazarenes. For them, the destruction of Jerusalem
and the cessation of the temple services meant the end of the Law. It came to them as a happy
release from the incubus of Judaism and left them free to develop a Christian philosophy of their
own better suited to the Gentile temperament.

But the old Nazarene community — to quote Baring Gould — the Church of James
and Simeon, clinging tightly to its old traditions, crouched in exile at Pella,
confounded by the Romans in common banishment with the Jew. The guards thrust
back Nazarene and Jew alike with their spears, when they ventured to approach the
ruins of their prostrate city, the capital of their nation and of their faith.'*'

Irenaeus observes of these Jewish Christians: "They practise circumcision, persevere in the
observance of those Customs which are enjoined by the Law, and are so Judaic in their mode of
life that they even adore Jerusalem as if it were the house of God. "'^° Their Christology was a
simple one. They believed that Jesus was the natural son of Joseph and Mary, elected to the high
office of Messiah by virtue of his holy life and Davidic descent; that he had been so designated at
his baptism by the entering in of the Holy Spirit, and the Voice which proclaimed, "Thou are my
son, this day have I begotten thee." They also believed that after proclaiming the kingdom of
God, he laid down his life for the salvation of Israel, was buried, rose again from the dead,
ascended into Heaven, and would shortly come again to set up his kingdom, and reign over the
house of Jacob forever.

The Gentile Christians, on the other hand, were ignorant of the meaning of the term "son of
God" in its Messianic sense, but were familiar with its use in their mythologies to signify one
begotten of a god in a supernatural sense. Thus Justin Martyr writes in his First Apology to the
Greeks:

And when we say also that the Logos, who is the firstborn of God, was produced without
sexual union, and that he, Jesus

Christ, our Teacher, was crucified and died, and rose again, arid ascended in to Heaven, we
propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of
Jupiter .... Moreover, the Son of God, called Jesus, even if only a man by ordinary
generation, yet, on account of his wisdom, is worthy to be called the son of God; for all
writers call God the Father of men and gods. And if we assert that the Word of God was born
of God in a peculiar manner, different hum ordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is
the angelic Word of God. But if anyone object that he was crucified, in this also he is
comparable to those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now
enumerated. . . . And if we even affirm that he was bom of a virgin, accept this in common
with what you accept of Perseus. And in that we say that he made whole the lame, the
paralytic, and those born blind, we seem to say what is very similar to the deeds said to have

been done by Aesculapius.^'

Thus by the pressure of political circumstances and racial antipathies Jewish and Gentile
Christianity drew apart, each following the path of its inherited tendencies, and developing its
beliefs along the lines of its own racial genius. Paul's great ideal of Jew and Gentile both one in
Christ could not then be realized, because neither would acknowledge the right of the other to
regard God's revelation from the standpoint of his own psychology.

The separation was not made without some bitterness being displayed. Jewish Christians
charged the Gentiles with apostasy from the teaching of Jesus and his disciples. They stressed
their designation ofEMonim "the poor of the world, rich in faith" and therefore the true heirs of
the kingdom of God, in contrast to the comparatively wealthy but unfaithful Gentile Christians.
Those, on the other hand, retorted that they did well to call themselves Ebionites, seeing that they
held such poor opinions about the person of Jesus, or perhaps it was their own intellect that was
poverty-stricken, or even the Law to which they adhered;^^ and they quoted Isaiah 54: 1, "Rejoice
O barren that didst not bear... for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the
married wife," to prove that the converts from among the Gentiles were both more numerous and
truer than those from among the Jews and Samaritans. ^^

Looking back on the doctrinal development of what is termed the sub-apostolic age, the Jewish
Christian historian Hegesippus wrote regretfully:

The Church continued until then as a pure and uncorrupt virgin; whilst if there were any at
all that attempted to pervert the sound doctrine of the saving gospel, they were yet skulking
in dark retreats; but when the sacred choir of apostles became extinct, and the generation of
those that had been privileged to hear their inspired wisdom had passed away, then also the
combinations of impious error arose by the fraud and delusions of false teachers. These also,
as there were none of the apostles left, henceforth attempted, without shame, to preach their
false doctrine against the true Gospel. ^"^

Apart from doctrinal issues, the sub-apostolic age found Jewish Christianity in a unique
position, which has received but scant recognition at the hands of ecclesiastical historians. From
the time of the martyrdom of James the Just, the Nazarenes had placed the government of their
affairs in the hands of the surviving relatives of the Messiah. "There are, also," says Hegesippus,
"those that take the lead of the whole Church as witnesses, even the kindred of our Lord. And
when profound peace was established throughout the whole Church they continued to the days of
the Emperor Trajan."^''

Not only were these Desposynoi (heirs), as they came to be called, venerated by reason of
their relationship to the Messiah, but also because of their Davidic descent, on account of which
they suffered frequent persecution. They were justly proud of their lineage, and it is due to them
that the genealogy of Jesus at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel was compiled. Mention is
made of this by Julius Africanus in his famous letter to Aristides:

And these (Desposynoi) coming from Nazara and Kochaba, Jewish villages, to the
other parts of the country, set forth the above-named genealogy, as accurately as
possible, from the book of Chronicles.

Eusebius records several persecutions of the Jews in the reigns of the Emperors Vespasian,
Domitian and Trajan, three of these instigated with the object of securing any members of the
house of David, who might yet be alive, and thus obviating the risk of Messianic insurrections.
In the second persecution, under Domitian, the two grandsons of Jude the brother of Jesus, James
and Zocher, were arrested and brought before the

emperor. Their interrogation by Domitian is reported by Hegesippus, ans ???? follows:

He put the question, whether they were David's race, and they confessed that they
were. He then asked them what property they had, or how much money they
possessed. And both of them answered that they had between them only nine
thousand denarii, and this they had not in silver, but in the value of a piece of land,
containing only thirty-nine acres; from which they raised their taxes and supported
themselves by their own labor. Then they also began to show their hands,
exhibiting the hardness of their bodies, and the callosity formed by incessant labor
on their hands, as evidence of their own labor. When asked, also, respecting the
Messiah and his Kingdom, what was its nature, and when and where it was to
appear, they replied, that it was not a temporal nor an earthly kingdom, but celestial
and angelic; that it would appear at the end of the world, when coming in glory he
would judge the living and the dead, and give to everyone according to his works.
Upon which Domitian, despising them, made no reply; but treating them with
contempt as simpletons commanded them to be dismissed, and by a decree ordered
the persecution to cease. ^^

In the third persecution, under Trajan, Simon the son of Cleophas, a cousin of Jesus and
successor to James in the presidency of the Jewish Christian communities, fell a victim; betrayed
it would seem by some evil disposed Gentile Christian sectaries. Hegesippus states that this
venerable disciple of the Messiah, reputed to have been a hundred and twenty years old, was
accused as a Christian and as a descendant of David.

After he was tormented many days, he died a martyr with such firmness that all
were amazed, even the proconsul (Atticus) himself, that a man of a hundred and
twenty years should bear such tortures. He was at last ordered to be crucified."

Thus perished the second bishop of the Jewish Christian flock, probably the last of those who
had seen and heard the Messiah, and who therefore had the best means of knowing the truth
concerning his person and doctrine; a fact that must always be recognized n dealing with
primitive Jewish Christian beliefs.

Another Jewish Christian, Justus, a recent convert, but not of the kindred of Jesus, succeeded
Simon in the presidency. From this time, circa 110

AD., the government passed from the relatives of Jesus, and it is possible from the numbers
given that the presidency became an office of annual appointment. Until the second Jewish revolt
in 133 A.D., thirteen Jewish Christian bishops of Jerusalem are mentioned. Their names are
given as Justus, Zaccheus, Tobias, Benjamin, John, Matthias, Philip, Seneca, Justus II, Levi,
Ephraim, Joseph, and Judas. ^'^

In 133 A.D. another disastrous war broke out in Palestine. A change in the policy of Hadrian,
hitherto pacific inwards the conquered people, produced an intolerable situation from the Jewish
point of view. Cruel edicts were promulgated which outraged their deepest religious feelings,
and led them to revolt a second time from Roman rule under the leadership of Bar-Kochba, a
pseudo-Messiah. It would seem that the Jews were not wholly unprepared for the struggle, and
before the revolt could be suppressed, Hadrian had to fetch his ablest general, Julius Severus,
from Britain, to command the Roman forces. The Jewish Christians, although they suffered as
much as their non-christian brethren from the Roman persecutions, refused to join the ranks of
the new Messiah. If Jesus had not at that time restored the kingdom to Israel, it was not in the
power of such a one as Bar-Kochba to do so. Surely Jesus himself had said, "I am i come in my
Father's name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will

receive.

Bar-Kochba found his greatest champion among the Jewish sages in Rabbi Akiba, who did
not hesitate to proclaim him as the Messiah; but there were many among the old Pharisaic party
who, equally with the Nazarenes, refused to acknowledge him. "Akiba," said one of them, "grass
will grow out of thy chin before Messiah come." The traditions, favorable and unfavorable,
reveal Bar-Kochba as a brave but utterly ruthless man. It is said that he commanded all his
soldiers to cut off one of their fingers to prove their courage, and he did not hesitate to execute
his aged uncle. Rabbi Eleazer of Nodeim, on the flimsiest evidence that he had played traitor. In
striking contrast to the pious and heroic Judas Maccabaeus, Bar-Kochba could pray before a
battle, "We pray thee, O Lord, give no assistance to the enemy; us thou needst not help!" His
persecution of the Jewish Christians is in keeping with the rest of his conduct. Galled by their
refusal to rally to his standard, he gave orders that if they would not deny Jesus, and execrate his
name they were to be

tortured.^" Equally, the prey of friend and foe, the plight of the Nazarenes was indeed a desperate
one.

As in the previous revolt, the fortunes of war went first in favor of the Jews, but
after a prolonged struggle and heavy losses on both sides, Roman arms again
triumphed, and Bar-Kochba was slain while defending the stronghold of Bethar. So
grave, however, had been the Roman casualties in this last Jewish fight for
freedom, that Hadrian, in reporting to the Senate the cessation of hostilities, omitted
"the army" in the customary phrase, "I and the army are well."

The Jewish Christians had now nothing more to fear from their disillusioned nation, but their
sufferings were by no means ended. Both Christian and non-Christian Jews were fugitives from
Roman vengeance, sharing the same privations, hiding in caves and mountain fastnesses,
enduring a common banishment. The cruel edicts which had occasioned the war were intensified;
a plough was drawn over Jerusalem and a new city Aelia Capitolina rose on its ruins: all Jews
were forbidden to approach their ancient capital on pain of death. On the site of the temple
another edifice was erected and dedicated to Jupiter Capitolinus. A statue of Hadrian marked the
spot where once the altar of Jehovah had stood; while over the Bethlehem gate a pig's head was
wrought in relief In this pagan city, from which Jewish Christians were barred, the Gentile
Church constituted itself under a Gentile bishop, Marcu.

Jewish Christianity never regained its position of authority in the affairs of the Church. The
Hadrianic war, which had wrung the death knell of Jewish hopes of political independence, had
also relegated the Church of the apostles to the rank of a heretical sect. Henceforth the Jewish
Christians, while they observed their ancestral customs, were practically excluded from the
Catholic Church, and might only associate with one another in their own communities scattered
about Coele-Syria and Transjordania, of whom the new orthodoxy could afterwards say "that
while they will be both Jews and Christians, they are neither Jews not Christians.'"^'

The Synagogue too now joined hands with the Gentile Church in this policy of exclusion, and
in order to prevent the attendance of Nazarenes at Jewish places of worship a curse against
sectaries was inserted in a part of the daily ritual which every Jew was required to repeat.^' This
curse, composed by Samuel the younger, early in the second century, is still retained in a
modified form in Jewish liturgical usage in the Shemoneh

Esreh (Eighteen Benedictions). Originally, it is believed to have read:

Let there be no hope for the apostates.

And let all the sectaries perish as in a moment.

Out of the agony of their experience, the Jewish Christians might well echo the words of the
apostle Paul: "We both hunger and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain
dwelling place; and labor, working with out hands; being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we
suffer it; being defamed, we entreat, we are made as the refuse of the world, the offscourings of
all things, unto this day. [42/43]

Chapter VI

At this stage in the history of Jewish Christianity, it is necessary to devote some space to the
methods of propaganda employed in carrying the Gospel both to Jews and Gentiles. The world as
it was known to the geographers of the second century AD. was much smaller than it is today.
The great continents of North and South America and Australia, large tracts of Africa, Asia and
Northern Europe were still terra incognita. The borders of civilization were soon passed, and the
travellers found themselves among uncouth and unfriendly tribes; it was indeed a venture of faith
to brave the unknown dangers which lurked on every hand, calling for great courage and
endurance and an indomitable spirit in those who set their faces towards the far horizon. To
undertake such an enterprise without armed escort, or merchandise to purchase safe conduct, was
to court disaster and death. Yet the command "Go and teach all nations," was obeyed to the letter
by the Jewish disciples. Their only defensive weapon was the promise, "Lo, I am with you
always"; their only merchandise was the bread and water of life contained in the sacred Hebrew
scrolls which they bore with them. Before they left Judaea they had been furnished with copies
of a small work, "a book of the word of God, and a narrative of the miracles and doctrines,"
written in the Hebrew tongue and, tradition says, compiled by Matthew.^"*

Many strange and wonderful tales are related concerning what befell the Apostles in foreign
lands, but even eliminating a great deal that is embroidery by pious hands, enough remains to
reveal the extent of their travels and the obstacles which they surmounted. Most of them were
called upon to lay down their lives for their faith far from friends and kindred, but no worthier
monument can be erected to their memory than that "the walls of the City of God had twelve
foundations, arid in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb."^^

In every place where converts were won. Christian synagogues were established with native
pastors, and for the conduct of these Gentile congregations the parent community in Palestine
issued a manual of instruction. A version of this precious document was found in the Jerusalem
monastery at Constantinople and published in 1883. It is written in Greek and bears the title. The
Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. The manual opens with a description of the Two Ways, of life
and

death, and urges the Christian to keep the commandments of Moses and Jesus to the best of his
ability. Then follows instruction about baptism, fasting and prayer, and the celebration of
thanksgiving at the beginning of the communal meal. Advice is given about the reception of
apostles, prophets and teachers, and how to distinguish between the true and the false. Apostles
must not remain longer that two days. Resident prophets are to receive the first fruits of all
produce. The wayfaring disciple is to be cared for, but if he decides to settle he must earn his
living. Other sections deal with diets of worship and the election of pastors and deacons. The
Gospel is to be the final court of appeal in all matters. The Teaching closes with an admonition
to be ready for the Messiah's return and a description of the signs of the end.

Jewish Christian propaganda among the Gentiles may be summed up in the words, "That they
may know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent."*^ The method of
approach was largely through preaching. A prejudice existed in Jewish minds against committing

the Scriptures to writing in any other than the sacred tongue. The day on which the Old
Testament was rendered into Greek was said to be as evil as that on which the golden calf was
made. Pantaenus, visiting the Indies late in the second century, reported, "that he found his own
arrival anticipated by some ... to whom Bartholomew, one of the apostles, had preached, and had
left them the Gospel of Matthew in Hebrew."*^^

With the propagation of the Gospel among the Jews, the position was quite otherwise. Though
preaching mainly in the form of disputation played an important part, the approach was largely
through writing, and even the disputations centered round the interpretation of the sacred scrolls
and resolved themselves into a searching of the Scriptures to see whether these things were so.^**
The situation may best be summarized in the words, "These things are written that ye might
believe that Jesus is Messiah."® Paul expressed the distinction in a sentence: "Seeing it is one
God which shall justify the circumcision out of (ek) their own faith, and uncircumcision through
(dia) acquired faith."™

The methods of written propaganda propaganda employed in apostolic times were not always
such as would commend themselves today. Polemic writers readily took advantage of the
difficulty and expense of manuscript production. If an author had enjoyed a reputation

among a certain group of people whom it was desired to influence, it was not thought iniquitous
to secure a copy of his works and to insert in them, either in the margin or in the body of the text
the ideas which it was intended to promote. Sectaries of all kinds freely interpolated one
another's documents and so carried the war into the enemy's camp. A man who spoke with
authority, and whose pronouncements were binding on a particular party, was made to voice
sentiments which he never owned and to support doctrines to which, perhaps, he was completely
opposed. This fashion of "pseudonymous propaganda," as Bate calls it, had first been set by
Greek writers, but was later adopted by Jewish and finally by Christian authors.

In his introduction to the Sibylline oracles Bate deals with Jewish interpolations in these
interesting books.

In the third and second century B.C. the Judaism of the Dispersion found itself in
close and manifold contact with Hellenism. To the Alexandrian Jew the Hellenic
world was both a friend and an enemy. He was attracted, influenced, enriched by its
wisdom, its poetry, its history: he was challenged and repelled by its religion and
(apart from the kindred influence of Stoicism) by its morals. The problem then
arose how a Greek-speaking Jew could best maintain his place in two worlds so
strangely diverse as those of Zion and Hellas: how he could commend his own faith
and practice to the Greeks whose intellectual life he shared, and uphold their
authority and prestige over against the cults and traditions of Hellas. In answer to
these problems there came into being a considerable literature in which the names
of Greek authors were used with a freedom which would now be considered less
than honest. The works or fragments so produced had one of two motives always,
and sometimes both: the propagation of the Jewish faith and the enhancing of the
credit and status of Judaism. History was represented by a pseudo-Hecataeus,
poetry by spurious verses attributed to Orpheus, Homer, Hesiod, Aeschylus,

Sophocles, Philemon, Menander. Orpheus was made to recant his polytheism and
proclaim the one true God: Sophocles to foretell the end of the world by fire and
the future blessedness of the righteous. All this was merely a forcible entry upon
the heritage of the Hellenes; the major premiss underlying it was the genuine
conviction that

the creed revelation was in fact older and truer than the wisdom and worship of the
Greeks. The Jewish "forgers" doubtless felt themselves to be merely rewriting
Greek literature as it ought to have been written."

A little later the same writer states:

It was the Jews of Alexandria who were the first after Berosus to adopt and amplify
the Sibylline oracles for the purpose of their own religion. From about 160 B.C. to
the end of the first century A.D. they continued to utilize them, nor did they
entirely cease to do so till two centuries later. But the Sibyllines were destined to
pass almost entirely out of Jewish hands. They were not retained among the
apologetic weapons of Rabbinic and Talmudic Judaism; and if this was due in part
to the deep cleavage which divided Judaism from Hellenism after the revolt of Bar-
Cochba, it was in large measure due to the whole-hearted adoption of the Sibyl by
Christian apologists, and the additions made by Christian writers to the Sibylline
literature ... the Christian retouching of the oracles began at an early date, very
possibly in the first century A.D.; and in the middle of the second century Celsus
was able to tax the Church with the deliberate forgery of spurious oracles. ^^

A single example of a Christian oracle in the Sibyllines may be quoted in illustration of Bate's
remarks. In Book V, w. 256-259 occurs the following passage:

And one chief man shall come again from the sky, who stretched forth his hands
upon the fruitful tree, the beat of the Hebrew, who once shall stay the sun in its
course, calling upon it with fair speech and holy lips.

The last words are a cryptic allusion to Jesus, by reference to Joshua (i.e. Jesus) the son of
Nun.

Among the books most popular with the Jews after the war with Rome were the several
apocalypses written in the names of ancient worthies of Israel, which prophesied the restoration
of the Jewish people after their sufferings, and judgment on their enemies. These books of
consolations contained references to the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom, and thus provided
the finest possible medium for disseminating the Christian doctrine. Such writings as the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs and t\\Q Apocalypse of Ezra became the subjects of
interpolation, and it is

highly probable that the reference to Jesus in Josephus' Antiquities was interpolated or altered by
Jewish Christian scribes. The extent of this interpolative system may be gathered from the fact
that by collecting and grouping the Christian references in these writings it is almost possible to
construct a complete Gospel. The natural result was that the Jews ceased to read their apocalyptic
books and put them under a ban. A typical example of Christian tampering with the text may be

given from the Testament of Benjamin. The interpolated passage is enclosed in square brackets.

Nevertheless, the temple of God shall be in your portion, and the last shall be more
glorious than the first. And the twelve tribes shall be gathered together there, and
all salvation in time visitation of the only-begotten prophet [And he shall enter into
the temple, and there shall the Lord be treated with outrage, and he shall be lifted
up and the Spirit of God shall pass on to the Gentiles as fire poured forth. And he
shall ascend from Hades and shall pass from earth into heaven. And I know how
lowly he shall be upon earth, and how glorious in heaven.

This form of propaganda was not confined to the extracanonical books. The margins of scrolls
of the Law and the Prophets were utilized to show the fulfillments of the Scriptures in Jesus. And
in the case of the Greek versions, prophecies relating to Christ were interpolated by Gentile
Christians into the sacred text itself; so much so that unenlightened Christians were deceived into
believing that the Jews had cut them out of the Hebrew copies.

Justin Martyr, in his Dialogue with the Jew Trypho, falls into this error, and as he flourished
about 160 A.D., the interpolations must have been made almost in the first quarter of the second
century. He says:

From the statements, then, which Ezra made in reference to the law of the
Passover, they (the Jews) have taken away the following: "And Ezra said to the
people. This Passover is our savior and our refuge. And if you have understood,
and you have received it in your hearts, that we shall humble him on a standard,
and thereafter hope in him, then this place shall not be forsaken forever, saith the
Lord of Hosts. But if you will not believe him, and will not hearken to his words,
you will be the laughing-stock to

the nations."

And from the sayings of Jeremiah they have cutout the following: "I was like a lamb that is
brought to the slaughter: they devised a device against me, saying. Come let us lay wood on his
bread, and let us blot him out of the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."...
the passage from the saying of Jeremiah is still written in some copies in the synagogues of the
Jews, for it was only a short time since they were cut out .... And again, from the sayings of the
same Jeremiah these have been cut out: "The Lord God remembered his dead people of Israel
who lay in the graves; and He descended to preach to them his own salvation." And from the
ninety-fifth (ninety- sixth) Psalm they have taken away this short saying of the words of David:
"From the wood." For when the passage said, 'Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned
from the wood," they have left, 'Tell ye among the nations, the Lord hath reigned. "^^

Justin was possibly misled by the Testimony Book, which the Christians had compiled, and
which strung together Biblical passages, with comments, believed to relate to Christ, as Tendel
Harris has suggested, and which did not always give the source of a quotation, or only that of the
prophet whose words were used to commence a subject section; so that a wrong ascription of
authorship could easily be made, or even a Christian comment placed to the credit of an Old
Testament authority.

In connection with the foregoing, however, certain passages in the Talmud are full of
meaning.

The margins of the books of the Minim (Jewish Sectaries including Jewish
Christians) they do not save, but these are burnt in their place, they and their
memorials (the sacred names in the text). R. Jose the Galilean says. On a week-day
one cuts out the memorials and hides them and burns the rest. R. Tarphon
exclaimed. May I lose my son! If they come into my hand I would burn them and
their memorials also. If the pursuer were pursuing me, I would enter into a house of
idolatry, but I would never enter into their houses; for the idolaters do not
acknowledge God and speak falsely concerning Him, but these do acknowledge
Him and speak falsely concerning Him. And concerning them the Scripture saith.
And behind the door and the doorpost thou hast set thy memorial (Isa. 57:8). R.
Ishmael said. Whereas in order to make peace between a man and his wife, God
says, Let my Name which is written in holiness be blotted out

in water, how much more the books of the Minim, which put enmity and jealousy
and strife between Israel and their Father in heaven, should be blotted out and their
memorials also .... R. Meir called in Aven-gilyon.^'^

The first expression in the last sentence quoted means "margin of idolatry" and the second
"margin of iniquity" both are a play on the word Evangelion (Gospel), and possible refer to the
interpolative system by which the gospel message was introduced into current Jewish literature.

It must not be thought, however, that interpolations and marginalia were the only means by
which Jewish Christians brought the teachings of the Messiah before the notice of their
unconverted brethren. Copies of the Gospel itself were circulated among them. This Gospel
indeed was not any of the four which became canonical, but the Hebrew Gospel, authorized by
the Nazarenes, and of which fragments only now remain, and which, writes Eusebius, "they of
the Hebrews that have received Christ love beyond any other" and in fact, "they took small
account of the rest."^^ The original manuscript of this Gospel was believed to have been
preserved in the library of Pamphilus at Caesarea, and Jerome claimed to have translated it into
Greek and Latin at the end of the fourth century; it seems to have been known in Europe down at
least to the tenth century. A reference in the Talmud, tractate Shabbat, and another in Justin's
Dialogue, show that this Gospel was well-known among the Jews in the first quarter of the
second century. In the former source a saying from the Evangelion is quoted: "I am not come to
take away from the Law of Moses, neither am I come to add to the Law of Moses. "'^ In the latter,
Trypho the Jew tells Justin, "I am aware that your precepts in the so-called Evangelion are so
wonderful and so great, that I suspect no one can keep them; for I have carefully read them:
Trypho' s words might have been echoed by many a Jew of his time.

The activities of Jewish Christians among their people were not limited to literary work; they
engaged in disputations with the rabbis, sometimes quoted in the Talmud, and it is noted that R.
Eliezer was greatly pleased with an otherwise unknown saying of Jesus quoted to him by a
certain Jewish Christian called Jacob of Kefar-Sechanaya. But above all, they carried on their
Master's ministry of healing, and their services in this connection were so effective, and
therefore in demand, that the rabbis tried to put a stop to them. As it was not always politic to use
the name of Jesus openly in these ministrations, they used to quote the text in Exodus

15:23. "I am the Lord that healeth thee," which by numerology is equivalent to the name Jesus in
Hebrew. R. Akiba, therefore, a great opponent of Christianity, declared that "whoever uses this
verse as a charm has no share in the life to come."

Thus, at home and abroad, Jewish Christianity was active in spreading the glad tidings by
every available channel, among rude savages and learned theologians, among Jews and Greeks,
Barbarians, Scythians, bond and free.

ADDENDA TO CHAPTER VI

1. REMAINS OF JEWISH CHRISTIANITY IN THE TALMUD

Several references to the Talmud have been made in illustration of Jewish Christian activities,
and as the Jewish literature generally is so little known and hardly ever utilized as a source for
Christian history, some further references and comments may not be out of place. The nature of
the material is very diverse, theology, healing and magical practices, and even humorous
repartee, all find their place in this ancient literature. Not all the allusions to Minim and Minut
(heretics and their heresies) are directed against Jewish Christians, but those which will be
quoted, we believe, are so. The most complete collection of extracts with English translations is
contained in Travers Herford, Christianity in Talmud and Midrash, a work which is now,
unfortunately, out of print.

Rabbi Eliezer is suspected of leanings to Christianity

The case of R. Eliezer (c. 100 A.D.), who was arrested for heresy, and they brought
him to the tribunal (bema) for judgment. The (Roman) governor said to him. Does
an old man like you occupy himself with such matters? He replied. Faithful is the
judge concerning me. The governor supposed that he referred to himself, but he
was really thinking of his Father in heaven. Said the governor to him. Since you
place yourself confidently in my hands, so let it be. Perhaps these societies en-
concerning these things. Dimissus! Behold, you are released.

When he had been freed from the tribunal, he was troubled because he had been
arrested for heresy. His disciples came in to console him, but he would not take
comfort. R. Akiba entered, and said to him. Rabbi, perhaps I can explain the cause
of your grief He answered. Say on. He said to him. Possibly,

one of the heretics spoke a heretical saying to you, and it pleased you. He said. By heaven,
you have reminded me! Once I was walking along the upper street of Sephoris, and I met
Jacob of the village of Sichnin, and he quoted a heretical saying to me in the name of Jesus,
and it pleased me"

A variant of the story gives a teaching of Jesus about purity in the temple. This passages is of
the utmost importance to Christian antiquities. It offers strong corroborative evidence of the
persecution instigated against the Christians in the early part of the reign of Trajan (98-1 17
A.D.), to which Simon the son of Cleophas, president of the Nazarenes, eventually fell a victim,
and which prompted the famous letter of Pliny the Younger to the emperor while Governor of
Bithynia. Eliezer was known to have associated with the Nazarenes in Galilee, and as the story
shows, he afterwards recollected a conversation with a certain Jacob (James), evidently a well-
known Jewish Christian, who is mentioned elsewhere in the Talmud. As the rabbi is described as

an old man, and his memory was at fault, his contact with the Nazarenes probably took place
many years previously which would carry our external knowledge of Jewish Christianity back to
about A.D. 80.

The Temptation of a Christian "Philosopher "

Imma Shalom was the wife of R. Eliezer, and sister of Rabbam Gamaliel. There
resided in her neighborhood a "philosopher" who had a reputation for never taking
a bribe. She and her brother sought to show him up. She sent to him a lamp of gold.
They then brought a case before him. Said she to him, I wish the property of the
women's house to be divided with me. He said to them. Divide it. They said to him.
But for us is written, "Where there is a son, a daughter does not inherit." He said to
them, from the day you were exiled from your land, the Law of Moses is invalid
and the Law of the Gospel has been substituted, and in that it is written, "A son and
a daughter shall inherit alike."

The next day he (R. Gamaliel), in his turn, sent a gift to him of a Lybian ass. He
(the philosopher) said to them, I have looked further to the end of the book, and in
it is written, "I am not come to take away from the Law of Moses, and I am not
come to add to the Law of Moses," and in the latter is certainly written,

"Where there is a son, a daughter does not inherit." She said to him (meaningly).
Let your light shine as a lamp. R. Gamahiel said to her. The ass has come and
trodden out the lamp.™

The story dates from about 80 A.D., and the R. Eliezer, the husband of Imma Shalom, is the
same as in the previous extract. Here we have a very valuable witness to the Jewish Christian
Gospel, traditionally compiled by Matthew. The Christian "philosopher" is probably a Gentile,
who had become a convert to a broad form of Nazarenism, or perhaps one like Justin Martyr,
who continued to wear his philosopher's robe after his conversion, and was well acquainted with
the Jewish Christians and used their Gospel in a Greek translation. It may have been the second
section devoted to miracles and doctrines described in the. Acts of Barnabas, which the Christian
was using as his authority. The first quotation from it about the Law of Inheritance is otherwise
unknown, but may rest on a saying of Jesus which served as a basis for the community of goods
practised by the primitive communities. The second quotation, however, is very close to
Matthew 5:17. The lady's hint, "Let your light shine as a lamp," is also very near to Matthew
5:16. But what are we to make of the sneer "The ass has come and trodden out the lamp"? There
is clearly more in it than a triumphant indication that the philosopher was corrupt after all. For
elucidation of the expression we have to turn to the statement of Justin Martyr that the Jews,
"sent out chosen men through all the land to tell that the godless heresy of the Christians had
sprung up, and to publish those things which all they who knew us not speak against us."™
Among the slanders put forth one concerned the association of Jesus with the ass on which he
had ridden into Jerusalem. A Midrash speaks of, "the ass of that wicked one." This the Greeks
linked up with an old anti-semitic libel of the Alexandrian rhetoricians, and concluded that the
Christians indulged in ass-worship. "Like many others," TertuUian addresses the Greeks, "you
have dreamed that an ass's head is our god ... he is depicted with the ears of an ass, and with one

of his feet hoofed, holding in his hands a book, and clothed in a toga."**" Here we have the
Christian lampooned as an ass-headed philosopher with the Gospel in his hand, an illuminating

commentary on our passage. But there is more to it: to Jewish malice is attributed the slander that
the Christians held promiscuous intercourse in their secret assemblies, and which brought against
them the charge of viciousness. Justin Martyr alludes to "those fabulous and shameful deeds, the
upsetting of the lamp, and promiscuous intercourse and eating of human flesh."*' R. Gamaliel's
final word is thus a summing up of the whole situation, as much as to say, "You see, how utterly
corrupt these Christians are."

The Nazarenes practice healing in the Name of Jesus

A man shall have no dealings with the heretics, nor be cured by them, even for the
sake of an hour of life. There was the case of ben Dama, nephew of R. Ishmael,
whom a serpent bit. There came Jacob, the heretic of the village of Sechanya to
cure him, (in the name of Jesus); but R. Ishmael would not allow him. Ben Dama
said to him, R. Ishmael, my brother, do allow him, that I may be cured, and I will
produce a text from the Law to prove that this is permitted. But hardly had he
finished his discourse, when his soul departed, and he died.**^

The grandson of R. Joshua b. Levi had something stuck in his throat. There came a
man and whispered to him in the name of Jesus, and he recovered. When the healer
came out, R. Joshua said to him, What was it you whispered to him? He said to
him, A certain word. He said to him. It had been better for him that he had died
rather than that. '^^

R. Akiba said. He who reads in external books, and he who whispers over a wound, and says,
"None of the diseases which I sent on Egypt will I lay on thee, I am the Lord thy Healer" (Ex.
15:26), has any share in the world to come.'*'*

These quotations confirm the evidence that we have from other sources that the Jewish
Christians practised healing in the name of Jesus. In view of the first extract it is interesting to
note in the longer ending to Mark's Gospel, that "these signs shall follow them that believe; in
my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hint them; they shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover."**^ Epiphanius informs us that he was told by the Jewish Christian
Joseph that before his conversion,

when lying dangerously ill, one of the elders, a student of the Law, whispered in his ear,
"Believe that Jesus the son of God was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and that he will come
again to judge the living and the dead." This kind of thing was of frequent occurrence, writes the
Bishop of Constantia, and mentions another Jew, who told him that once when on the point of
death, he heard a whisper in his ear from one of those who stood by, that "Jesus Christ who was
crucified, the son of God, will hereafter judge thee. '"^^ By means of their healing art, the Jewish
Christians were thus able openly or secretly to reach and influence their brethren. McNeile has
well explained R. Akiba' s condemnation of those who whisper Ex. 15:26, over wounds. The last
words, "I am the Lord that healeth thee," have the numerical value of the name Jesus, and would
be used by crypto-Christians as a substitute, when they dared not pronounce the name of Jesus

openly/'

The Nazarene Day

On the eve of the Sabbath they did not fast our of respect to the Sabbath; still less
did they do so on the Sabbath itself Why did they not fast on the day after the
Sabbath? R. Johanan says, Because of the Nazarenes.*^

The Nazarenes worse than Gentiles

Gentiles, and those that keep small cattle and those that breed the same (i.e. Jewish
farmers of forbidden animals), are neither helped out (of a pit) nor cast into it. The
heretics and the apostates and the informers are cast in and not helped out.**'

This passage is a relic of the Hadrianic persecutions. The Nazarenes had become a menace to
the consolidation of Judaism in those critical times. Their militant Messianism and condemnation
of the Oral Law struck at the very foundations of the faith which the rabbis were reformulating.
They are classed with the apostates and informers who had sold themselves to Rome, and who
did not scruple to betray their brethren who continued to practise their customs contrary to the
imperial edicts. It is only fair to say, however, that the Nazarenes suffered equally in this respect.

R. Abahu and a Jewish Christian

A certain heretic, whose name was Sason (joy), said to R.

Abahu, You will draw water for me in the world to come, for it is written (Is. 12:3),
With joy shall ye draw water from the well of salvation. Abahu said to him. If it
were written /or joy, it would be as you say: but it is written with joy; we shall
therefore make a waterskin of your hide, and draw water with that.^°

2. Longer Fragments of the Gospel of the Hebrews

It would occupy far too much space to enter into a discussion concerning the date and
authorship of the Gospel of the Hebrews, and the several texts which evidently went under that
name. Here it will suffice to say that the surviving fragments have come down to us mainly from
the quotations preserved in the writings of Jerome and Epiphanius, and as indicating Jewish
Christian tradition regarding the life and teaching of the Messiah, extracts may be given under
the headings of Hieronomian and Epiphanian texts respectively.''

Hieronomian Text

Behold, the mother of the Lord and his brethren said unto him: John the Baptist baptizeth unto
the remission of sins; let us go and be baptized of him. But he said unto them: wherein have I
sinned, that I should go and be baptized of him? unless, peradventure, this very thing that I have
said is (a sin) of ignorance.'^

And it came to pass when the Lord was come up out of the water, the whole fount of the Holy
spirit descended and rested upon him, and said unto him: My son, in all the prophets was I

waiting for thee that thou shouldst come, and I might rest in thee. For thou art my rest, thou art
my first begotten son, that reignest forever.^^

If thy brother (saith he — Jesus)'''* have sinned by a word and made thee amends, seven times
in a day receive thou him. Simon, his disciple said unto him: Seven times in a day? the Lord
answered and said unto him:

Yea, I say unto thee, unto seventy times seven times. For in the prophets also, after they were
anointed by the Holy spirit, the word of sin was found.

The second of the rich men said unto him: Master, what good thing can I do and live? He said
unto him: O man, perform the law and the prophets. He answered him: I have kept them. He said
unto him: Go, sell all that thou ownest, and distribute it to the poor, and come, follow me. But
the rich man began to scratch his head, and it pleased him not.

And the Lord said unto him: How sayest thou, I have kept the law and the prophets? For it is
written in the law: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, and lo, many of thy brethren, sons of
Abraham, are clad in filth, dying for hunger, and thine house is full of many good things, and
nought at all goeth out of it unto them. And he turned and said unto Simon his disciple, who was
sitting by him: Simon, son of Joanna, it is easier for a camel to enter in by a needle's eye, than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.'"'

Now the Lord, when he had given the linen cloth unto the servant of the priest, went unto
James and appeared to him (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour
wherein he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see him risen again from among them that
sleep) .... Bring ye, saith the Lord, a table and bread. And he took bread and blessed and brake
and gave unto James the Just, and said unto him: My brother, eat thy bread, for the son of Man is
risen from among them that sleep. ''^

And when he (Jesus) came to Peter and those who were with Peter, he said to them: Lo, feel
me and see that I am not a bodiless spirit. And forthwith they touched him and believed.'^

Epiphanian Texf^

It came to pass in the days of Herod the king of Judaea, when Caiaphas was high priest, that
there came a certain man John, by name, baptizing with the baptism of repentance in the river
Jordan, who was said to be of the lineage of Aaron the priest, child of Zacharias and Elizabeth,
and all went out unto him.

John was baptizing, and there went out unto him Pharisees and were baptized, and all
Jerusalem. And John had raiment of camel's hair and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his
meat was wild honey, whereof the taste is of manna, as a cake dipped in oil.

After the people were baptized, Jesus also came and was baptized by John; and as he came up
from the water, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Holy spirit in the likeness of a dove
that descended and entered into him: and a voice from heaven saying: Thou art my beloved Son,
in thee I am well pleased: and again: This day have I begotten thee. And straight-way there shone
about the place a great light, which, when John saw it he saith unto him: Who art thou. Lord?
And again there was a voice from heaven, saying unto him: this is my beloved son in whom lam
well pleased. And then John fell down before him and said: I beseech thee. Lord, baptize

thou me. But he prevented him, saying: Suffer it; for thus it behoveth that all things should be
fulfilled.

There was a certain man named Jesus, and he was about thirty years old, who chose us. And
coming into Capernaum he entered into the house of Simon who was surnamed Peter, and
opened his mouth and said: as I passed by the lake of Tiberias, I chose John and James, the sons
of Zebedee, and Simon and Andrew and Thaddaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the Iscariot
and thee, Matthew, as thou satest at the receipt of custom I called, and thou followedst me. You,
therefore, I will to be twelve apostles for a testimony unto Israel.

Chapter VII

The records of Jewish Christianity towards the end of the second century and dining the third
do not indicate any improvement in the relations with Gentile Christianity. With both sides it was
a period of hardening, of crystallization. The Gentile Church, or, as we may now call it, the
Catholic Church, had canonized the four Gospels now contained in the New Testament, while
the Nazarene Church as stoutly clung to their own Hebrew Gospel. All the traditions of the
elders and the reminiscences of those who had heard them had been gathered up, and the
beginnings of a definite dogmatic statement of faith were in evidence. In the Jewish world, also,
the same process was going on. The rulings of the earlier rabbinical authorities were brought
together in the collection known as the Mishna (repetition) with the Tosephta (additions), and all
parties tended to become more rigid and less open to a friendly exchange of opinions.
Controversy continued, but it was on a lower plane, and cruel and bitter reproaches were
frequently exchanged. The Catholic fathers wrote treatises Against the Jews and compiled unfair
Testimonia from the Old Testament in support of the rejection of the Jewish people and in proof
that the Church was the new Israel: they also upbraided the Jewish Christians with the poverty of
their Christianity and their continued adherence to Jewish customs. The Jews retorted on their
opponents by inventing or elaborating slanderous stories about Jesus, which supplied useful
weapons of offence to such noted pagan polemical writers as Celsus. The Nazarenes in their turn
were denouncing the apostasy of the Catholics, and vilifying Paul, saying that he was a Greek
who had turned Jew in hope of marrying the high priest's daughter; but because his suit was
rejected, he wrote against the Sabbath and Circumcision.^^

Naturally, the more numerous passages-at-arms were between the Nazarenes and the
Rabbinists, and we are fortunate in having preserved to us a number of these things in the
Talmud and Midrashim on the one hand, and Jerome's writings on the other. The Scriptures were
ransacked by both faiths for suitable weapons, and the following quotations may be taken as
representative of their polemical exegesis.

The Rabbinists

"I will render vengeance to mine adversaries" (Dt. 32:41),

these are the Cuthin (Samaritans) ...." and "I will recompense them that hate me," these are
the minim (Nazarenes); and thus God saith (Ps. 139:21-22) "Do I not hate them which hate
thee, O Lord? I hate them with a perfect hatred; they have become mine enemies. ""'°°

Everywhere that "hypocrisy" occurs in a verse, the Scripture speaks of minuth
(Nazarenism); and the common element in them all is indicated by Isaiah 33 : 14, "The sinners
in Zion are afraid; trembling hath seized the hypocrites.'""'

The Nazarenes

"And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto
wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living

should they consult the dead?" (Isaiah 8:19). The Nazarenes explain this passage as follows:
When the Scribes and Pharisees say that you should hearken unto them, who do everything
for their belly's sake, and who mutter in their incantations after the fashion of wizards in
order to deceive you, answer them thus: Is it no marvel that you follow your traditions; every
nation consults its own idols. We, therefore, need not consult your dead about the living
things for God has given us a magic of our own, the Law and Testimony of Scripture, which
if you follow not you will never have the light, but the darkness will always oppress you as it
passes over your land and your doctrine; as also those who are deceived by you will see
themselves in error, suffering a hunger for the truth. Then shall they fret themselves and be
angry and curse you, whom they thought of as gods and kings. And they shall look towards
heaven and earth in vain, and shall abide in darkness and be unable to escape from your
insidiousness.'"^

"That watch for iniquity .... that make a man an offender for a word" (Is. 39:20-21). The
Nazarenes testify against the Scribes and Pharisees, wherein they fail through their Mishna,
who first deluded the people through their very bad traditions: they watched day and night in
order to deceive the simple, and caused men to sin through (Misrepresenting) the word of
God, so that they should deny the Messiah.'"^

Jerome gives several further extracts from what was evidently a Naza-

rene Targum on the Prophets, now unfortunately lost, which those who are interested may see in
their place. But we may note in connection with what has been said above in Chapter 6 about the
rabbinical play on the word Evangelion, that the Nazarenes also were not averse to punning at
the expense of their opponents; Hillel and Shammai, the founders of the two famous Jewish
schools of thought, they designated as Hillul (profane) and Shammah (devastator), because these
in their opinion had profaned the word of God, and made it of none effect.

But in spite of a certain acrimoniousness in debate, the impression made by the Jewish
Christians on their own nation was very profound. The influence of the Hebrew Gospel,
especially, was difficult to resist, copies of it even finding their way into the Jewish archives at
the patriarchal center of Tiberias, together with the Nazarenes Acts of the Apostles, a different
document to the canonical Acts, and the HQhrom Apocalypse ofJohn}^^ In an attempt to discredit
this important witness, as the writer has elsewhere shown, the rabbis published a parody, the
Toledot Yeshu (the generations of Jesus), which took its title, as was customary in Jewish usage,
from the opening words of the Hebrew Gospel.'"^ This work satirizing the Gospel narrative, and
partly based on independent tradition, has bee a thorn in the side of the Jewish people ever since
its composition. Secretly transcribed again and again down to modern times, embellished with
fanciful details which held up Jesus and his followers to ridicule, it encouraged the Jews to resist
the fiery persecutions of the Catholic Church, while at the same time the knowledge of its
existence only added fuel to the flames of fury that assailed them. Better for thousands of
martyred Hebrews if it had never been written.

Of the conduct of Jewish Christian affairs from 135 AD, until the conquest of Palestine by the
Mohammedans in the seventh century, we have no means of knowing. Who were their patriarchs
and great men? History is silent. We learn from Epiphanius that they had numerous communities

scattered throughout Coele-Syria, the Hauran, Batanea, the DecapoHs, and even as far east as
Mesopotamia.'"'^ The east Jordan land seems, indeed, to have been their special territory ever
since the destruction of Jerusalem. Epiphanius is also witness that the Nazarenes continued to
have synagogues and elders, exactly like the Jews,'°^ with whose rites their own remained closely
akin, and the Talmud refers to their

places of worship as Beth Nizraphi, a term of etymology. There is evidence that their
performance of circumcision and the weekly fasts were on different days than was the custom
among the rabbinists. This was a result of the growing religious antagonism which ousted them
from the Synagogue and brought them in the end to repudiate even the name of Jew. Their
communities subsisted frugally by agricultural labor, and they lived in daily expectation of the
return of the Messiah to restore the kingdom to Israel, in which for their constancy they would
have a ruling part.

Towards the end of the second century we mark the beginnings of a break in the ranks. Origen
speaks of "the twofold sect of Ebionites, who either acknowledge with us that Jesus was born of
a virgin, or deny this, and maintain that he was begotten like other human beings." To a section
of the Jewish Christians, particularly in Syria, where there was a closer contact with the Catholic
Church, which had made outcasts of the descendants of the founders of the great churches of
Antioch and Damascus, the position was intolerable. In consideration of fraternal relations
extended to them, they were prepared to accept some of the dogmas of the new orthodoxy.
Certain individual Jewish Christians had already associated themselves with the dominant
Church, but group action was a new move. The phase was a most important one, for its genesis
produced at Antioch the Gospel of Matthew as we now have it.

The phase extended even further. The native Syrian Christians were willing to allow the
antiquity of the Nazarenes, and to accept the fact that they possessed genuine independent
traditions regarding the life of Christ, which they were avid to learn and utilize. The imparting of
this information, chiefly concerning the childhood of Jesus and certain incidents connected with
his crucifixion and post-resurrection appearances, led to a whole literature of Infancy and other
sectional Gospel narratives, claiming authority from original Hebrew sources, which continued
to be multiplied and elaborated for centuries. For one instance among many, the prologue to the
Gospel ofNicodemus has it:

I Ananias, etc., found these memorials written in Hebrew, and by the favor of God have
translated them into Greek of the information of all who call upon the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.

One wonders in reading some al these texts whether the Nazarenes had not been practising a
little edifying leg-pulling at the expense of the

credulous Syrians. Traces, however, of valuable historical facts do remain in the old syriac
Gospels and sacred literature of the Eastern Church, which otherwise would have been
irretrievably lost.

The lapse from the true faith of some of their number was bound to react on the rest of the
Nazarene communities, who became in consequence more rigid and exclusive, and in a short
time completely lost touch with the great body of believers, finding consolation instead with

contacting other bodies of Jewish sectaries who had made their abode in the regions which they
inhabited. The resultant medley of beliefs will have to be considered in a later chapter. Three
legacies, at least, they left to the Syriac and Greek-speaking churches before they withdrew into
the background of Christian affairs, the Clementine Romances, the Odes of Solomon, and the
Greek translation of the Old Testament by Symmachus.

The Clementine Romances, the Homilies and Recognitions, take as their basis the history of
Clement, a Roman convert to Jewish Christianity, and how he became reunited to his parents and
brothers from whom he had been separated by an ill fate. He becomes attached to Peter, and
follows him in his pursuit of arid disputations with the arch-enemy, Simon Magus. Opportunity
is given in the numerous discussions and dialogues of the narrative to restate the true faith in
opposition to Greek and other heresies put into the mouth of Simon, who sometimes bears a
strange likeness to the apostle Paul. Other works have also been drawn upon by the compiler,
including the ancient Preaching of Peter and the Ascents of James. The teaching is definitely
Jewish Christian, and the Gospel references introduce a number of uncanonical sayings and
traditions.

The Odes of Solomon, discovered in a Syriac text by Dr. J. Rendel Harris, consist of a
collection of forty-two hymns. There has been much scholarly controversy over their authorship,
but the writer from a close study considers that there is conclusive evidence that the collection
represents a part, at least, of the Nazarene hymn-book. As such the work is of enormous
importance, first because it reveals the elevated character of Jewish Christian theology, and
makes plain many obscurities relating to their beliefs and traditions, and second, because a
Church with a hymnary is a living church, and not a moribund institution as many would
suppose Nazarenism in the third century to have been. Two of the Odes are reproduced here
from Dr. Harris' translation; in the second it is the Messiah who is speaking.

Ode 6

As the hand moves over the harp, and the string speak, so speaks in my members
the Spirit of the Lord, and I speak by His love. For it destroys what is foreign, and
everything that is bitter: for thus it was from the beginning and will be to the end,
that nothing should be his adversary, and nothing should stand up against Him. The
Lord has multiplied the knowledge of Himself, and is zealous that these things
should be known, which by His grace have been given to us. And the praise of His
name He gave us: our spirits praise His Holy Spirit. For there went forth a stream
and became a river great and broad; for it flooded and broke up everj^hing and it
brought water to the Temple: and the restrainers of the children of men were not
able to restrain it, nor the arts of those whose business it is to restrain waters; for it
spread over the face of the whole earth, and filled everything: and all the thirsty
upon earth were given to drink of it; and thirst was relieved and quenched: for from
the Most High the draught was given. Blessed then are the ministers of that draught
who are entrusted with that water of His: they have assuaged the dry lips, and the
will that had fainted they have raised up; and souls that were near departing they
have caught back from death: and limbs that had fallen they straightened and set
up: they gave strength for their feebleness and light to their eyes: for everyone
knew them in the Lord, and they lived by the water of life forever. Hallelujah

Ode 36

I rested on the Spirit of the Lord: and the Spirit raised me on high: and made me
stand on my feet in the height of the Lord, before His perfection and His glory,
while I was praising Him by the composition of His songs. The Spirit brought me
forth before the face of the Lord: and although a son of man, I was named the
Illuminate, the son of God: while I praised among the praising ones, and great was I
amongst the mighty ones. For according to the greatness of the Most High, so He
made me: and like His own newness He renewed me; and He anointed me from His
own perfection: and I became one of his neighbors; and my mouth was opened, like
a cloud of dew; and my heart poured out as it were a gushing stream of
righteousness, and my access to Him was in peace: and I was established by the
spirit of His

government. Hallelujah

In the second of these two hymns, the Nazarene belief of the acquired divine attributes of the
Messiah, who was born a man amongst men, is clearly seen. He was anointed by God with the
Holy Spirit and with Power: one Nazarene reference rather beautifully puts it that the anointing
was with oil taken from the Tree of Life.

Symmachus appears to have been, like Clement, a convert lo Jewish Christianity, and may
have been of Samaritan origin. He flourished towards the end of the second century. His object
in undertaking a new translation of the Old Testament is believed to have been to provide a
rendering in idiomatic Greek, free from semitisms. His version was one of those embodied by
Origen in his Hexapla, and its influence still remains, as it was largely made use of by Jerome in
his revision of the Latin Bible. Eusebius mentions that in his own day (fourth century) there were
Commentaries of Symmachus still extant, in which it would seem that he criticized the Greek
version of Matthew's Gospel, which had lately been accepted by the Gentile Church.

Undoubtedly, the most outstanding name among Jewish Christians of this period was
Hegesippus, often called the first ecclesiastical historian. Born in Palestine about 140 A.D., he
kept closely in touch with all sections of the Church, though he himself held to the Nazarene
faith. He travelled widely throughout the west, and came to Rome during the bishopric of
Anicetus. Subsequently, he wrote h\s Memoirs, in five books, now unfortunately lost. But
fragments have been preserved chiefly in Eusebius' quotations, and many of them have already
been drawn upon in this history. They show him to have been a sedulous collector of traditions
regarding the lives of the apostles and those related to them, and it is to him that we owe much of
our knowledge of primitive Christian history. He is reported by Eusebius to have quoted largely
from the Gospel of the Hebrews, which to him, as to his co-religionists, was the final authority
on the life and teaching of Jesus. He is also said to have stated that certain books of the
Apocrypha had been forged during his own lifetime. '"'^ He was evidently a liberal minded man
ever ready to note the best in the life of his fellow Christians, and this chapter may fittingly close
with the only autobiographical fragment of his work which has survived.

The Corinthian Church has continued in the true faith until

Primus, now Bishop of Corinth. I conversed with him on my voyage to Rome, and
stayed many days with the Corinthians, during which time we were refreshed
together with true doctrine. Arrived in Rome, I composed the succession (of
bishops) until Anicetus, whose deacon was Eleutherus. After Anicetus succeeded
Soter, and afterwards Eleutherus. But with every succession, and in every city, that
prevails which the Law and the Prophets and the Lord enjoin. '°'

Chapter VIII

The fourth century dawned full of promise for the Christian faith. "And now a bright and
splendid day," writes Eusebius, "with no overshadowing cloud, irradiated the churches in the
whole world with its celestial light.""" The miracle had happened. The Emperor Constantine had
submitted to the grace of baptism. But for those who still clung to the observances of the Law of
Moses, whether Nazarene of Pharisee, that day was one of darkness and gloom. The era of
persecution by Pagan Romans was passing away, only to be succeeded by the more terrible and
prolonged persecutions by Christian Romans. Incited thereto by a vengeful and fanatical clergy,
drunk with liberty and power. Constantine commenced to pursue a policy of cruel restriction
against the Jews, embodied in a series of edicts, which the populace were not slow to construe as
a policy bordering on extirpation.

We desire to have nothing in common with this so hated people, for the Redeemer has
marked out another path for us. To this we will keep, and be free from disgraceful
association with this people.

So ran the imperial will. Massacres became frequent, and burning synagogues a Christian
recreation.

Under these conditions, Palestine gradually lost its Jewish population, which took refuge
further east in Persia and Mesopotamia where there was a better prospect of enjoying freedom of
conscience. The rabbinical colleges at Sura and Pumbedith took over authority from those of
Tiberias and Sephoris. and abandoned synagogues were rededicated to Christian worship. The
name of Nazarene, formerly honored by every follower of the Man of Nazareth, was now wholly
discarded by the Catholic Church, and reserved exclusively for the "heresy" of the faith which he
had founded. A few of the Fathers there were, like Jerome, who still gave credit to the ancient
testimony of the Jewish Christians. He associated with them in Beroea (Aleppo), and translated
their Hebrew Gospel into Greek and Latin, suffering the accusation of, "having forged a fifth
Gospel." It is in large part due to his writings that we owe our slender knowledge of the
Nazarene opinions.

In the west, at this time, we mark the beginning of a new phase, which after the virtual
disruption of the Nazarene Ebionite communities was to

carry on the torch of Jewish Christianity through a succession of individual converts to the
Catholic faith until their organization should at length be reconstituted.

The scene is Rome, and the occasion a disputation held before Constantine and the saintly
Queen Helena between the Jews and Christians. Argument had failed to be convincing to either
side, and at length, so runs the legend, the Jews had recourse to magic. They commanded an ox
to be fetched, and the ineffable Name of God being whispered into its ear by Sambres, the
Jewish leader, it at once fell dead at the emperor's feet. The Jews were triumphant; but the
famous wonder-working Pope Sylvester was a match for them. Would the Jews believe if the ox
came to life again at the name of Jesus? They would. Sylvester raised his eyes to heaven, and
with a loud voice cried: "If He be the true God whom I preach, in the name of Christ, arise, O ox.

and stand upon thy feet!" The ox sprang to life, and began to move and feed. The astounded Jews
gave in and were all baptized.

We have now to consider a new type of Jewish Christian, willing or unwilling convert to
Catholicism, having no relationship with the old Nazarene groups, and in many cases as bigoted
and intolerant in their attitude towards them and the Jewish people as were those of Gentile birth.
Of this new type, two were prominent in the fourth century, Epiphanius, Bishop of Constantia,
and Count Joseph, and the last is our chief informant about the second.

Epiphanius was born about 303 A.D. in the village of Bezanduca in Palestine. He was of
Jewish parentage on both sides. His father died when he was very young, and his widowed
mother was not in good circumstances. A wealthy Jew, a friend of the family, adopted him and
later married him to his only daughter. Almost immediately, however, he host his wife, and his
father-in-law dying soon after bequeathed to him his extensive property. While on a visit to some
of his possessions he was impressed with the charity of a monk whom he met, and resolved to
become a Christian, an example that was followed by his sister. After a course of instruction,
both were received into the Catholic Church.

Epiphanius. in his fervor for his new-found faith, parted with his wealth and became a monk.
Many legends surround his later life, due to the ethusiasm of his two disciples, John and
Polybius, but the following facts

may be regarded as fairly well established. On a visit to Egypt he came into contact with certain
Christian Gnostics, apparently of antinomian tendencies, from whom he escaped in horror.
Returned to Palestine, he founded a monastery near his native village. The next few years find
him engaged in violent controversy with the school of Origen, particularly in the person of John,
Bishop of Jerusalem. About 368 he was made Bishop of Constantia in Cyprus, where he became
widely known for his learning. In 382 he was summoned to Rome by the emperor to give his
opinion in an ecclesiastical dispute. The year 394 found him again in Jerusalem, where he
betrayed something of his Jewish origin in denouncing the use of images which he found painted
on a cloth in a Christian church. "Such material," he said, "would be better employed for charity
than for ceremony."

Soon after this he retired to Bethlehem, from where he journeyed once more to
Constantinople in his old age to attend a synod convened to reprimand the famous John
Chrysostom for sheltering some Egyptian monks expelled for adopting Origen' s views.
Epiphanius, however, did not wait of the synod to sit, and died at sea on his way back to Cyprus
at the advanced age of a hundred years. He was a sincere, though somewhat over-zealous and
imprudent churchman, who followed the orthodoxy of his day with commendable loyalty. It is
unfortunate that he was out of sympathy with his Nazarene brethren, but this was probably due to
his early conversion and training in monastic circles. He never appears to have been in direct
contact with either Nazarenes or Ebionites, whom he castigates unmercifully. He had read the
Ebionite text of the Gospel in a Greek translation, and his quotations from it preserve what little
we know of its contents.

Epiphanius' principal work is his voluminous Panarion, which has been described as an
encyclopedia of heresies. In it he combats nearly eighty Christian and Jewish sects. The

Panarion will always remain one of the most valuable possessions of Christianity because of the
mass of material on primitive Christian beliefs which it contains: many of the traditions recorded
by Epiphanius have come down to modem times exclusively through his diligence. He also
wrote a treatise on Biblical Weights and Measures.

The Bishop of Constantia, as we have said, is our authority for the romantic history of
another Jewish convert, Count Joseph, called by his former co-religionists, "the Apostate." He
was a rabbinical student of

Tiberias, attached to the person of the Jewish Patriarch Hillel II. According to his own account,
he had witnessed the Patriarch's deathbed confession of faith in Christ. Through the joints of the
door, he had seen him receive the sacrament from the Bishop of Tiberias, who had attended him
as physician. After Hillel' s death, Joseph found among his effects, Hebrew texts oi Matthew,
John and t\\QActs of the apostles, which he read and was strongly convinced of the truth of
Christianity. He did not, however, make a public confession of his faith. Other circumstances in
later life increased his conviction, and a severe illness determined him no longer to postpone his
baptism. On his recovery his fear of the consequences of his act made him still delay openly to
avow himself a Christian. At this time he was appointed official collector of the patriarchal
revenues in Cilicia, and he made the acquaintance of a bishop near whose house he was staying.
The suspicions of the Jews were aroused, and they one day surprised him in the act of reading
the Gospels. They dragged him to the synagogue, and would have beaten him to death, had not
the bishop intervened. When he was about to leave the city, another attempt on his life was
made, and he was thrown into the river Cydnus. Again he escaped, and soon after made a public
confession of his faith in Jesus. His interesting story came to the ears of Constantine, who made
him a Comes, or Count, of the Roman Empire.

Little more of Count Joseph is known, except that the emperor employed him on several
commissions, and that he devoted his life to building churches in towns which had large Jewish
populations, at Tiberias, Nazareth and Sephoris (Dio Caesarea). Inscriptions recording his
foundation still remain. He sheltered some priests fleeing from Arian persecution, and it was
about this time in his old age that Epiphanius heard this story from his own lips while he was a
guest in his house.

Epiphanius tells us in his Panarion of other Jewish converts to Catholicism, but the anti-
Jewish policy of the Church, which manifested itself ever more strongly from this time onwards,
must have tended steadily to decrease the numbers of genuine conversions and make the name of
Jesus to be hated by his own people. Those who did take the step were the objects of bitter
Jewish persecution, so much so that Constantine decreed death at the stake for those guilty of
"pursuing with stones and other violence" the baptized Jew. But if the outraged Synagogue could
not vent its bitter wrath on those who seemed to have gone over to the ranks of its enemies, it
could and did endeavor to wean from their Christian faith

newly converted pagans, by pointing out the far-fetched Biblical exegesis of the Church,
especially in relation to Messianic passages. In order to obtain their evidence at first hand from
the lips of Christian preachers, Jews were even willing to come to church; so that the Church of
Jerusalem at a synod had to complain of "Jewish serpents and Samaritan imbeciles listening to

sermons in church like wolves surrounding the flock of Christ."

The Catholic Church, with the whole of the Roman Empire given to it, at least in name as a
Christian territory, and by no means sure of its ground, worked itself up into an acute state of
hysteria over an imagined Jewish peril. Even to the more enlightened ecclesiastic, the Jew was a
perverted being laboring mysteriously and mercilessly to restore pagan domination and
undermine the Church's authority. The few cases where Jews had succeeded in persuading
pagans of the weakness of the state religion were magnified into an organized effort to overthrow
the Church. The humor of the situation, if humor it can be called which involves the extreme of
human passions, was, that to anyone who knows the Jews at all well their greatest and self-
realized weakness is their inability to co-operate and act in concerted harmony in any major
policy. Yet, again and again, down to our own day, the scare has been raised of the existence of a
sinister and secret Jewish world organization with anti-Christian objects, which has served as a
useful bogey to authority uncertain of its hold on the people. The most casual study of Jewish
history would show the utter impossibility of any such threat if on no other ground, on the
ground of inherent Jewish lack of self-co-ordination, which even in modern Palestine, with the
ideal object of the establishment of a Jewish National Home, has brought such a large measure of
frustration through disunity and divergent counsels.

As in twentieth-century Germany under Nazi rule, the fourth-century Church authorities felt
that isolation of their adherents from Jewish influence was the best policy to adopt, and they set
to work with zeal to build again the middle wall of partition that had been broken down. East and
West Church Councils met and promulgated strange decrees which in their terms throw an
interesting light on the good relations which must have subsisted between many a Christian
community and its Jewish neighbors.

The so-caWed Apostalic Canons decreed:

If an clergyman shall enter into a synagogue of Jews of heretics

(i.e. Nazarenes) to pray, let him be deposed. If a layman do so, let him be
excommunicated.'""

If any bishop, presbyter or deacon, or any one of the list of the clergy, keeps fast or
festival with the Jews, or receives from them any of the gifts of their feasts, as
unleavened bread, or any such things, let him be deposed. If he be a layman, let him he
excommuni cated . " ^

If any Christian brings oil into a temple of the heathen, or into a synagogue of the Jews,
or lights lamps, let him be excommunicated."^

At Elvira (Elibris) near Granada in Spain, nineteen bishops, thirty-six presbyters, and more
deacons, met in 324 A.D. to enact, among other matters:

Landholders are to be admonished not to suffer the fruits which they receive from God
with the giving of thanks, to be blessed by the Jews, lest our benediction be rendered
invalid and unprofitable. If anyone shall venture to do so after this interdiction, let him
altogether be ejected from the Church.""^

If any person, whether clerical or one of the faithful, shall take food with the Jews, he
is to abstain from our communion, that he may learn to amend. "^

It is rather surprising to trace as one of the causes of Christian persecution of the Jews, the
discovery of the real or reputed relics of the Jewish Christian saints and of the Savior himself
"At that time (i.e. fourth century)," writes the Bishop of Saragossa in 620 A.D., "many things
came to light which had not been recorded, such as the bandages and the shroud in which the
body of our Lord was wrapped." The saintly Queen Helena was herself led to the discovery of
the wood of the true Cross by a Jew, Judas, who is said to have become a Christian. The Jewish
Rabban Gamaliel, the teacher of St. Paul, is reported to have directed the finding of the relics of
the martyr Stephan, by appearing in vision to Lucian of Caphargamala.

These latter relics were destined to play a part in the conversion of the Jews of Minorca, to
which island they had been brought by Orosius. Severus, Bishop of Minorca, has heft his own
highly colored account of the incident in a letter, from which we learn that frequent

disputations took place between the bishop and Rabbi Theodore, head of the Jewish community
of the little town of Magona. Eventually the bishop led his congregants to the synagogue on a
fateful Sabbath on the plea that the Jews had stored up arms there. A disturbance resulted in
which the Christians burnt down the sacred edifice and bore off the scrolls of the Law in
triumph. Three days later, the Jews gathered together within the ruined walls and their rabbi
exhorted them in an eloquent address in vindication of the Law to which the Christians listened
with dismay. At last they raised a shout, "Theodore, believe in Christ!" which the unfortunate
Jews misunderstood as 'Theodore believes in Christ." and fled in despair from the spot. The
rabbi yielded to the pleas made to him, and was baptized, and was followed shortly afterwards by
most of his congregants. The triumphant bishop was convinced of the efficacy of the bones of
Stephen as directly responsible of the victory, and he points with pride to the mild methods by
which it was possible to win the Jews to Christ.

In Crete also where were many conversions, the outcome of the activities of a pseudo-
Messiah name Moses, who had promised the Jews that like his famous namesake, he would lead
them dryshod through the sea to the Promised Land. The day of the expected miracle arrived,
and crowds of the deluded Jews assembled on the shores of the Mediterranean. 'The impostor
directed them to throw themselves into the water, which many doing were either drowned or
picked up by Christian vessels. When the rest of the Jews turned to revenge themselves on their
prophet, Moses had conveniently disappeared. As a result, a number were willing to be
convinced that in Jesus the true Messiah must have already come, and consented to be baptized.

From this time, however, until the modern period, the approach to the Jews in Europe was
less by reason and charity and more by compulsion, intimidation and active violence. Their
continued existence outside the pale of the Church was thought of as an insult to the Savior,
which must be wiped out by the waters of baptism or their own blood. "'^

ADDENDUM TO CHAPTER VII

Some Profession of Faith Required of Jewish Converts"^
From the Church of Constantinople^^^
As a preliminary to his acceptance as a catechumen, a Jew "must confess

and denounce verbally, the whole Hebrew people, forthwith declare that with a whole heart and
sincere faith he desires to be received among the Christians. Then he must renounce openly in
the church all Jewish superstition, the priest saying, and he, or his sponsor if he is a child,
replying in these words:

"I renounce all customs, rites, legalisms, unleavened breads and sacrifice of lambs of the
Hebrews, and all the other feasts of the Hebrews, sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications,
sanctifications, and propitiations, and fasts, and new moons, and Sabbaths, and superstitions, and
hymns and chants and observances and synagogues, and the food and drink of the Hebrew; in
one word, I renounce absolutely everything Jewish, every law, rite and custom, and above all I
renounce Antichrist, whom all the Jews await in the figure and form of Christ; and I join myself
to the true Christ and God. and I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy.
Consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity, and the dispensation in the flesh and the descent to men
of the Word of God, of the one person of the Holy Trinity, and I confess that he was truly made
man, and I believe and proclaim that after the flesh in very truth, the Blessed Virgin Mary bore
him, the Son of God; and I believe in, receive, venerate and embrace the adorable Cross of
Christ, and the holy images: and thus, with my whole heart, and soul, and with a true faith I
come to the Christian Faith. But if it be with deceit and hypocrisy, and not with a sincere and
perfect faith and a genuine love of Christ, but with a pretence to be a Christian that I come, and if
afterwards I shall wish to deny and return to Jewish superstition, or shall be found eating with
Jews, or feasting with them, or secretly conversing and condemning the Christian religion
instead of openly confuting them and condemning their vain faith, then let tine trembling of Cain
and the leprosy of Gehazi cleave to me, as well as the legal punishments to which I acknowledge
myself liable. And may I be anathema in the world to come, and may my soul be set down with
Satan and the devils."

Of Uncertain Eastern Origin, attached to the Clementine Recognitions

"It is my desire today to come from the Hebrew to the Christian faith. I have not been
brought by any force, necessity, fear, annoyance or poverty; nor because of a debt, or of an
accusation lodged against me; nor for the sake of worldly honors, of advantages, of money or
property which has been promised me by anyone; nor for the sake of its useful consequences,

nor to obtain human patronage; nor because of any quarrel or dispute which I have had with
people of my own religion; nor for secret purposes of revenge on the Christians, by a feigned
admiration for their law, nor because I have been wronged by them: but I have been brought by a
wholehearted love of Christ and of faith in Him.

I renounce the whole worship of the Hebrew, circumcision, all its legalisms, unleavened
bread, Passover, the sacrificing of lambs, the feasts of Weeks, Jubilees, Trumpets, Atonement,
Tabernacles, and all the other Hebrew feasts, their sacrifices, prayers, aspersions, purifications,
expiations, fasts. Sabbaths, new moons, foods and drinks. And I absolutely renounce every
custom and institution of the Jewish laws.

Moreover, I place under anathema the heresies among the Jews, and the heretics themselves.
I anathematize the Sadducees, who are called just, who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who attack

the resurrection of the dead, and deny the existence of angels. I anathematize the Pharisees, the
separate ones, who fast on the second and fifth days, who pretend to sexual abstinence at definite
times, and afterwards despise all continence, who foretell the future, and waste their time on
astrology. I anathematize the Nazarenes, the stubborn ones, who deny that the laws of sacrifices
was given by Moses, who abstain from eating living things, and who never offer sacrifice: I
anathematize the Osseans, the blindest of all men, who use other scriptures that the Law, and
reject most of the prophets, and who boast in a man as master, one Elzai, that is 'the hidden
virtue,' and who worship, as Gods, two women of his offspring. Marthonis and Marthana: I
anathematize the Herodians, who worship as Christ a foreign king of the Jews, Herod, who was
eaten of worms. I anathematize the Hemerobaptists, who believe as do the Pharisees, but also
teach that a man cannot be saved without daily washing. I anathematize the scribes, or doctors of
the Law, who are not content to live according to the Law, but of their own free will perform
more than is prescribed by the Law, and devising washing of vessels and cups and platters and
other articles of furniture, and frequently wash their hands and their feet; and who call all these
many traditions they have added to the Law 'Deuteroses,' as though they were a second series of
Divine Laws, and they falsely ascribe the first to Moses, and the second to Rabbi Akiba, and the
third to Annas who is also called Judas, and the fourth to the suns of the Hasmoneans, who even
violated the Sabbath in battle.

Together with all these Jewish heresies and heresiarchs, deuteroses and

givers thereof, I anathematize those who celebrate the feast of Mordecai on the first Sabbath of
the Christian fast, hanging the effigy of Haman on a gibbet, and mingling the sign of the cross
therewith, and burning alt together, and subjecting the Christians to every kind of curse and
anathema.

II. Together with the ancients, I anathematize also the Chief Rabbis and new evil doctors of the
Jews, to wit, Lazarus the inventor of the abominable feast which they call Monopodaria, and
Elijah who was no less impious, and Benjamin, Zebedee, Abraham, Symbatius and the rest of
them. Further, I invoke every curse and anathema on him whose coming is expected by the Jews
as the Christ or Anointed, but is rather Anti-Christ, and I renounce him and commit myself to the
only true Christ and God. And I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the Holy
consubstantial and Indivisible Trinity; I confess the Incarnation and the coming to man of the
one of the Holy Trinity, to wit, the only begotten son and Word of God, begotten of the Father
before all the centuries, through Whom all things were made. I believe Him to be the Messiah
foretold by the Law and the prophets: and I am convinced that He has already come into the
world for the salvation of mankind; that He was truly made man, and did not surrender His
Divinity, that he is truly God and truly man, without confusion, change or alteration, of one
person and two natures. I believe that He suffered all things of His own will, and was crucified in
the flesh, while His Divinity remained impassable, and was buried, and rose again on the third
day, and ascended into heaven, and shall come again in glory to judge both the living and the
dead.

And I believe and profess the Blessed Virgin Mary, who bore Him according to the flesh, and
who remained a virgin, to be truly and actually the Mother of God, and I venerate and honor her
truly as the Mother of God Incarnate, and as the Lady and mistress thereby of all creation.

I am convinced and confess and believe that the bread and the wine which is mystically

consecrated among Christians, and which they take in their sacred rites, is the very body and
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, transmuted by His Divine power reasonably and invisibly, in His
own way beyond all natural understanding, and I confess that in taking the sacrament I am taking
His very body and blood, to the gaining of life eternal and the inheritance of the Kingdom of
heaven which belongs to those who receive them in perfect faith.

Finally, I beg for Christian baptism, out of a pure and a spotless heart and mind, and a sincere
faith, truly persuaded that it is the true spiritual

washing, and regeneration of the soul and body.

III. I receive, honor and accept as symbols and indications of their prototypes, the venerable
Cross of the true Christ and God, no longer the instrument of death and crime, but of liberty and
eternal life, and the sign of victory over death and Satan; likewise, I receive the hitherto
venerated images of both the Word of God according to the flesh among men, and likewise, of
the most pure and ineffable Mother of God, of the holy angels, and finally of all the saints.

I honor and venerate with the honor due to them the blessed angels and all the saints, not
only the patriarchs and prophets, but the apostles, martyrs, confessors, doctors, saints, all indeed
who pleased Christ when lie came, as His servants and faithful followers.

Wherefore, with my whole heart and mind and with deliberate choice, I come to the Christian
faith.

But if I make this statement falsely and deceitfully, and not on the witness of my whole
conviction and in love for the Christ who has already come, but because of some compulsion,
necessity, fear, loss, poverty, debt, accusation brought against me, worldly honor, dignity of any
kind, money, promised gifts, or to serve some end, or for human protection, or because of
dispute and quarrel with some of my own faith, or to revenge myself thus on the Christians,
feigning respect for their law, or if I pretend to become a Christian because of some injuries
suffered from them, and then revert to Judaism, or be found eating with the Jews, or observing
their feasts and fasts, or speaking secretly with them, or defaming the Christian faith, or visiting
their synagogues or oratories, or taking them tinder my protecting, and do not rather confute the
said Jews and their acts openly, and revile their empty faith, then may there come upon me all
the curses which Moses wrote in Deuteronony, and the trembling of Cain, and the leprosy of
Gehazi, in addition to the penalties by law established, and may I be without any hope of pardon,
and in the age to come may I be anathema and double anathema, and may my soul be set down
with Satan and his demons."

Chapter IX

It has been said that what is hated tong enough will in the end become hateful, and this
aphorism is so far exemplified in the history of the Nazarenes that having been continually
treated as heretics, they did eventually become heretical. Cut off from communion with their
brethren by race on one side, and faith on the other, their resistance to Gnostic influences was
steadily worn down, and their doctrines became more and more divergent from the tradition
which had supported them for nearly five hundred years.

Already in the fourth century, the separation between the Syrian and Transjordanian Jewish
Christians seems to have become absolute: the former suffering a slow extinction and in part
being absorbed by the Gentile Syrian Church, while the latter were well nigh submerged by the
strange sects of the eastern deserts.

In order to understand the causes of Ebionite-Nazarene disruption, one has to go a long way
back to the genesis of the Hasidic movement in the second century B.C. At that time there came
into existence a body of "purists" or "pietists" as a protest against the hellenization which was
undermining Jewish allegiance to the ancestral beliefs.

After the Maccabean struggle in which they actively participated, they retired altogether from
public affairs, and about B.C. 72, were joined by the Zaddokites, who were being persecuted by
the Pharisees."' These followers of a certain Zadok, or perhaps the righteous priest of that name
in the reign of David, were antagonistic to doctrines inferred from the Law and not implicit in it,
and so opposed to the Pharisee interpretations which resulted in the Oral Law. In the quiet places
of their choosing in the wilderness of Engedi. the Hasidic groups, better known as Essenes,
developed a kind of theosophy in which a knowledge of angelic powers played a part. They
practised healing and laid great stress on personal purity, which demanded frequent ablutions. It
is a critical question how far the movement headed by John the Baptist drew its inspiration from
this source. Names by which different groups became known, Hemerobaptists, Masbotheans,
etc., attest the manner of life which they adopted. In the early days of Christianity, another group
became prominent, followers of a certain Elzai or Elkesai, supposed to mean "the hidden virtue,"
but whose name may have been taken on the pattern of the Zaddokites from

the ancient Jewish high priest Hilkiah.

The Jewish Christian refugees from the overthrow of Jerusalem were thrown into close
proximity with these offshoots of Judaism, and only the strength of their convictions prevented
an early amalgamation with the Jewish sectaries with whom they had so much in common. The
Elkesean propaganda shows clear traces of infiltration of Nazarene ideas, and Epiphanius tells us
the founder of this heresy was greatly honored by the Nazarenes and Ebionites who highly
esteemed his book.'^° To many of the rabbinical Jews, the tenets of the eastern gnostics made a
strong appeal. They caught them on the reaction from the frustration of their political hopes. The
Sephar Yetsirah (Book of Formation) and the mystic lore of the Merkhagaqn (the Heavenly
Chariot) bear witness to this infiuence, which in orthodox Judaism finally led to Kabbalism.

Gentile Christianity also suffered from Egyptian gnostic seductions, which assumed a form

agreeing readily with the new Christology, and it took all the thunder of eminent divines like
Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Tertullian to vanquish the intruder. The first Epistle to Timothy closes
with a warning against "profane and vain babblings, and the antitheses of the Gnosis, falsely so-
called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. "'^' The doctrine of the Pairs and
Opposites (antitheses), the successive emanations from the Godhead, was a common feature of
all the gnostic systems. According to the greatest of the gnostics, Valentinus, there were fifteen
of these.

In the Jewish form of gnosticism, these emanations are represented by the ten sephiroth,
which telescope out of each other or branch out from the Tree of Life. We find Jewish
Christianity affected with this doctrine, and these words are put into the mouth of Peter in the
Clementine Homilies:

Hence therefore God, teaching men with respect to the truth of existing things, being
himself One and sole God from the beginning, having made heaven and earth, day and
night, light and fire, sun and moon, life and death. But man alone amongst these he
made self-controlling, having a fitness to be either righteous or unrighteous. To him
also he hath varied the figures of combinations, placing before him small things first,
and great ones afterwards, such as the world and eternity. But the world that now is, is
temporary: that which shall be, is eternal. First is ignorance, then knowledge. So also
has he arranged the leaders of prophecy. For, since the present world is female, as a
mother

bringing forth the souls of her children, but the world to come is male, as a father
receiving his children; therefore in this world there come a succession of prophets, as
being sons of the world to come, and having a knowledge of men. And if pious men
had understood this mystery, they would never have gone astray. '^^

In the so-called Gospel of the Egyptians, a gnostic Gospel, Egypt being the spiritual home of
the mysteries, Jesus is made to say, "I have come to destroy the works of the woman" i.e., the
works of this world. The same Gospel develops the idea of Christ transforming the present
cosmos, typified by a woman, Salome, into the male world-to-come by an androgynus process in
which male and female are reunited in one body as at the beginning of the creation when God
made man male and female. The doctrine reached full development in the Sophia literature,
erring Wisdom, she who had to be redeemed by the descent of Christ from on high and restored
to her rightful place in the celestial hierarchy. The theme was an elevated one and had a wide
appeal, so that it could produce a worthy hymnology of which the following example may be
quoted:

First, there was Mind the generative Law of all.
Second to the firstborn was liquid Chaos.
Third, soul, through toil received the Law:
In misery she enters the labyrinth of ills,
and Jesus said: O Father, I will descend.
Through aeons universal will I make a path.
Through mysteries all I'll open up a way.
And forms of gods will I display.
The secret of the holy path I will hand on.

And call it Gnosis.

In this hymn the link with the Pauline school can be clearly seen.

Christ is the head of the Church: and he is the Savior of the body .... Christ loved the
Church, and gave himself for it .... that he might present it .... not having spot or
wrinkle, or any such thing .... For this cause shall a Man (Christ Jesus) leave his Father
(God) and mother (Holy Spirit), and be joined unto his wife (the Church), and they two
shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the
Church. '2^

In the Gospel of the Hebrews. Jesus also speaks of die Holy Spirit as his Mother, and says.
"My mysteries are for me and the sons of my house." There grew up an esoteric doctrine of the
Savior revealed only

to the initiated, and of which naturally we now know very little.

In its more ascetic and unworldly forms. Gnosticism was distinguished by celibacy and
vegetarianism.'^"^ In the Catholic church through the teaching of Clement of Alexandria and the
school of Origen, this gave rise to monasticism.

It was these ideas which peopled the deserts of Nitria and Scete with myriads of monks
wrestling with their bodies, those prison-houses of the soul, struggling to die to the world of
matter, that their ethereal souls might shake themselves free.'^^

We know little about celibacy among the Jewish Christians, but vegetarianism in time
became an essential of their faith, so that they were even driven to altering their Gospel to
support their doctrine, omitting locusts from the dietary of the Baptist, and changing the saying
of Jesus to his disciples before the last supper to, "Have I desired to eat this flesh of the Passover
with you?"'^^ A stage in the development of this prejudice against animal food is found in the
belief that the sacrificial system had been done away in Christ, to be replaced by thanksgiving
(eucharist), and Scriptures such as Psalm 50:13-14, 69:3 1 were quoted as proof It was said that
by the grace of baptism Jesus had extinguished the fire on the priest's altar, and he was made to
say in the corrupted Hebrew Gospel, "I came to destroy the sacrifices, and if ye cease not from
sacrificing, the wrath of God will not cease from you." In allusion to which, the rabbis
nicknamed Jesus Thodah (thanksgiving).'^^

It has been necessary to treat of Gnosticism at such length because it is directly due to its
subtle influence that the downfall of independent Jewish Christianity must be attributed. The
Christology of the Ebionites had become, in the fourth century, a curious blend of old and new
conceptions. According to Epiphanius, they said:

That Jesus was begotten of the seed of man, and was chosen; and so by the choice he
was called son of God from the Christ that entered into him from above in the likeness
of a dove. And they deny that he was begotten of God the Father, but say that he was
created, as one of the archangels, yet greater, and that he is the lord of angels and of all
things made by the Almighty.

The Christ (above), they say, is a manlike figure, invisible to men in general.'^*

They also seem to have held that it was possible for any of their number to attain to
Christhood by leading a life of equal sanctity.

There is a deep tragedy in the end of the once powerful and respected Church of the
Apostles. No sudden and merciful extinction was granted to the ancient communities of Jewish
Believers; but a show decay set in which in the course of time reduced their number to a few
fragmentary groups who had almost forgotten their own origin. We would like to know more
about those closing scenes, but the successive waves of Persian and Arab invasion which swept
over Syria and Palestine made even Gentile Christianity a hunted thing so that the records are
well nigh silent. We do hear casually that a Persian commander on one occasion asked the
Byzantine general, Belisarius, to postpone a battle as it would have taken place during the
Passover, when the Jews and Nazarenes would not willingly fight;'^' so that early in the seventh
century the Nazarenes were still fairly numerous.

The venerable text of the Hebrew Gospel preserved in the Pamphilian Library at Cesarea was
itself reduced to ashes in the sack of the city by the Mohammedans in A.D. 653, and almost the
latest traces of it at present known are a few marginal readings from "the Jewish" in the so-called
Zion group of manuscripts.

A few of the Nazarenes may have joined the standard of the Prophet; for some of the
Christian references in the Koran appear to rest on Jewish Christian apocrypha: but such
references as the Arab writers offer us point to the lingering on of isolated and eccentric groups.
We have a statement of the En-Nadim about the Mughtasila, or "Washers," who in the tenth
century still reverenced a prophet called Al-Hasih, evidently the old Elkesai of the Ebionites and
Hemerobaptists, and possibly the Nazarene-Mandaites of the Euphrates valley even today
preserve vestiges of the ancient traditions. Recently the writer has obtained evidence in Palestine
which may identify with the Nazarenes another small group inhabiting the Transjordanian
highlands in the little village of El-Husn. These Arabs, as they call themselves, keep Sabbath and
circumcision, are vegetarians and non-smokers, reject image worship and govern their lives by
the precepts of the Sermon on the Mount. They look for Christ to return and reign for a thousand
years.

With the rise of Islam, the real work of Jewish Christianity in the East

had finished. It had left in possession at least a faith in which the Unity of God was a
fundamental principle and in which Jesus was recognized as a great and true prophet. The story
is told of the Emperor Heraclius, that being warned in a dream that his power would be destroyed
by "the circumcised" he ordered the compulsory baptism of all the Jews in his realm: he did not
realize that "the circumcised" were really the Arabs. '^° From this time the future of Jewish
Christianity lay in the West until the times of the Gentiles should be fulfilled.

Chapter X

The history of Jewish Christianity from the seventh century to the represent day is principally
a record of individual converts, who, such was the intolerance of the times, scarcely dare
acknowledge their Jewish extraction for fear of persecution on the ground of sympathy towards
their former co-religionists. Bitter accusations have been brought against Jewish Christians by
Jewish writers, of fanatically persecuting their brethren, and it is sad to relate but honest to
confess that in a great many instances these charges are true. When, however, the religious and
social conditions are taken into consideration certain circumstances appear which explain many
of these unhappy occurrences,

A large number of so-called converts were compulsory Christians, whom the Jews classed as
Anusim, as distinguished from Meshumadim Apostates), who had been baptized in order to
escape confiscation of their goods, if not the loss of their lives, or had adopted the Christian faith
from motives of self interest. Such converts had their every action scrutinized by a vigilant and
bigoted clergy ever on the look out to discover the least signs of relapse into Judaism; and
immunity from espionage was often only purchased by a zeal for Jewish conversion and
persecution of those who resisted the Christian claims. The crime of Judaizing, which sometimes
meant nothing more than saying a word in favor of the Jews, was punished by heavy fines,
confiscation of property, lifelong imprisonment, or death, according to the heinousness of the
offence. The instinct for self-preservation may thus be pleaded in extenuation of much that
Jewish people suffered at the hands of Christianized Jews.

In the case of sincere Jewish Christians, who must always be distinguished from Christianized
Jews, the real motive which animated them was the desire to open the eyes of their brethren to
the saving truth that Jesus is the Messiah. The efforts of these converts, however, were too often
frustrated by the clergy supporting them, who with great zeal but little understanding went
beyond the gentler arts of persuasion and demonstration to use harsher methods to soften
obdurate hearts. Many a mission, which might have proved successful if the Jewish converts had
been left alone to present their case in their own way, was turned into a massacre by
ecclesiastical interference or popular malice, to the great sorrow of those who were unwittingly
responsible. In the instances of

definite fanaticism which have to be recorded, the harsh polemics and burnings of the Talmud,
one must remember that blasphemy was a much more grievous sin in those days, that the torment
of the damned in hell was a reality that made any present suffering worth while if it could secure
immunity, and that cruelty in word and act was less tempered by social custom.

The Jews themselves were by no means guiltless of acts of violence, though with more excuse,
especially when goaded to madness by persecution, and they frequently behaved so vengefully
towards converts as to bring down retributive measures on their own heads. One can only read
with shame some of their penitential prayers and their obscene libels on Jesus and his mother
which they wrote and studied in secret.

As for those ghouls of Jewish race, mercifully few, who battened on their people's misery, and
used Christianity as a cloak to enrich themselves by the spoliation of their brethren, no words can

express their infamy, which is as much a disgrace to Judaism as it is to Jewish Christianity.

Considering the persecutions which the Jews in Europe endured at Christian hands, and the
corrupt state of the Christian rehgion, it is a great wonder that there were any sincere converts at
all, instead of the love of Christ the Jew saw only undying hatred. The methods which were
employed in his attempted conversion could not but confirm him in his detestation of so
barbarous a faith.

Every passion was in arms against them. The monarchs were instigated by avarice; the
nobility by the warlike spirit generated by chivalry; the clergy by bigotry; the people by all
these concurrent motives. Each of the great changes which were gradually taking place in the
state of the world seemed to darken the condition of this unhappy people, till the outward
degradation worked inward upon their own minds. Confined to base and sordid occupations,
they contracted their thoughts and feelings to their station, individual and national character
must be endowed with more than ordinary greatness if it can long maintain self-estimation
after it has totally lost the esteem of mankind; the despised will usually become
despicable.'^'

There is a considerable element of truth in this statement, though it is straining the facts to
suggest that the Jews ever sunk into a state of complete degradation. Surprising as it is they were
able to give of their best during the dark night of persecution, and their sweetest poetry and most
profound

philosophy was penned under the awful conditions of their existence.

One cannot help feeling to a certain extent that the church in desiring Jewish conversion was
not so much concerned that this people might share in the blessings of Christ, but that a sore and
excresence on the Christian body politic might be removed. Popular superstition even had it that
the Jew was possessed of an offensive odor, which disappeared on his baptism. At the best,
Jewish survival was a challenge to Christian supremacy, and the war on Judaism was a war on an
enemy of the State. To employ a modern American expression, the Jew was Christendom's
Public Enemy No. 1 .

But the object of this history is not to record the sufferings of the Jewish people, which have
been fully dealt with by many writers, yet injustice to those who might have been Christ's but
for Christendom, one cannot omit in the course of the narrative some account of Christian
methods of propaganda among the Jews.

One may say indeed that a reference to these methods is essential to the history; for the story of
Jewish Christianity is almost inextricably intertwined with that of the Jewish people. It is a
curious kind of history with little of logical sequence; a stepping from century to century and
from place to place through all the lands of Israel's dispersion, examining the archives for
evidence of Jewish believers in Jesus Christ, and noting the part they played in their day and
generation. Occasionally one lights on a family or group that offers a more protracted picture, a
beacon that burns a little longer than others before it is swallowed up in the surrounding
darkness. Yet a beacon is a static thing, and our chain of believing Israelites is marching with the
centuries, a procession of torchbearers.

For many hundreds of years, long anterior even to the fateful fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, a
Jewish population had been building up in the great western peninsular of Spain. The country

had suffered in the early fifth century the ruthless invasion of the barbarian hordes that swept
across Europe, vandals, Alani and Suevi, but by A.D. 429 the two first had retired to Africa and
the last had been entirely subdued by the Visigoth Theodoric in 456. Although nominally the
reoccupation of Spain was for the Roman emperor, it was not long before the Visigoths had
established a kingdom free from any allegiance to Rome. Jewish non-resistance to the invaders
had preserved them from some of the worst severities of the struggle, and under the earlier
Visigothic kings who favored the Arian interpretation of Christianity they multiplied and
prospered. A change

took place with the adoption by a later king Recared of the Nicene Creed, and it was in this reign
that the first laws adverse to the Jews were passed, A.D. 589.

But these decrees were as nothing compared with what was to follow twenty-five years later.
Inspired by the Byzantine Emperor, Heraclius, the compulsory conversion of all the Jews in the
Visigothic kingdom was decreed by King Sisebut in A.D. 614. The proclamation, as preserved in
the Spanish code Fuero Jusgo, runs as follows:

Whereas Truth itself instructs us to ask, and to knock, assuring us that the kingdom of
heaven suffereth violence: it cannot be doubted that whosoever fails to approach it with an
ardent desire, is a despiser of the proffered grace.

Wherefore, if any of those Jews as yet unbaptized, shall delay to be himself baptized, or
neglect to send his children and slaves to the priest for baptism while it is offered, thus
abiding without the grace of baptism, for the space of one year from the issue of this decree:
every such transgressor, wherever found, shall be stripped, and shall suffer one hundred
lashes, as likewise the due penalty of exile: his goods shall be forfeit to the king; and in
order that his life may be the more painful, if unamended, such goods shall become the
perpetual property of those on whom the king shall bestow them.

The decree fell like a bombshell on the Jewish communities, and even a famous
contemporary churchman, St. Isidore of Seville, felt that the king had exceeded his duties.
"Sisebut," he wrote, "by urging the Jews into Christianity, had indeed 'a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge.' For he forcibly compelled those whom he should rather have
persuaded by arguments of the faith. "'^^

The protests of the Jews were in vain. The author of the Shevet Yehudah (The Scepter of
Judah) has given an argument put forward by one of the learned representatives. He thus
addressed the king:

It is written in our Law, that Israel formerly despised the great gift of God, the land
flowing with milk and honey. I ask, O king, what should be the penalty of those who despise
the gift of God? The king replied: "That too is wisely stated in your law; the loss of what
they despise. See then, O king," said the rabbi, "to what thou hast said. Thou hast offered us
in baptism

a life everlasting. Be then the penalty for its neglect the loss of that blessing." But the king
answered, "Compulsion is unjust in matters concerning the body, and that goodly land
related to the body; but in things spiritual, it is proper, just as a child is coerced in its

learning."

The wholesale baptism of the Jews followed. Some fleeing for refuge to the neighboring
kingdom of the Franks, found to their horror and distress that a similar decree had been enacted
there by the reigning monarch. King Dagobert.

Thus was begun that pernicious policy which peopled Spain and Portugal, except for the
interval of Moorish rule, with crypto- Jews down to the present day. Bound to Christianity by
baptismal water, their faith had not more substance than water. Outwardly conforming to the
riles of the Church, they led a life of painful and fearful hypocrisy. No less than 90,000 Jews are
said to have submitted to Sisebut's Christening.

Nineteen years later, when the Gothic throne was seized by Sisenand with the help of the
Franks, there was a short respite from compulsory conversion. At the fourth Council of Toledo it
was decreed:

Concerning Jews, this holy synod has resolved to compel no one hereafter to accept our
faith. For God has mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth: and
such persons are not saved without consent, but willingly, that the attribute of justice may be
kept secure. For as man by his own freewill, in yielding to the serpent, did perish; so when
the grace of God doth call, each man is saved in believing, by the conversion of his own
mind. Therefore, they are not to be urged by constraint, but persuaded through the free
faculty of the will into conversion.

Respecting those already forced into Christianity, as was done in the time of the most
religious prince Sisebut, since it is evident that they have been partakers in the Divine
sacraments, have received the grace of baptism, have been anointed with the chrism, and
have received the body and blood of our Lord, it is right that these be obliged to retain the
faith which, although under compulsion and necessity, still they have undertaken, lest the
name of God be blasphemed, and the faith which they have assumed be accounted worthless
and despicable. '^^

We have given this Canon in full, but there are others of the same

Council from which extracts must be quoted, for it is only in the very words of these old decrees
that we can obtain a true historical insight into the workings of the minds of the creators.

Many who were formerly exalted to the Christian faith, are now known not only in
blasphemy against Christ to perpetrate Jewish rites, but have even dared to practise the
abomination of circumcision. . . . Transgressors after this sort, being apprehended by authority
of the prelates, shall be recalled to the true worship according to Christian doctrine: so that
those whom their own will cannot amend, may be coerced by sacerdotal correction.'^"*

We decree that the sons and daughters of Jews are to be separated from their parents, lest
they likewise be involved in their errors. '^^

Let there be no further communion of Jews who have been transferred to the Christian
faith, with such as adhere to their ancient rites; lest perchance, by mingling with them, they
be subverted. '^^

Jews having Christian wives, are to be admonished by the bishop of their diocese, that if

they desire to abide with them, they must become Christian; and if, being so admonished,
they refuse to obey, they shall be separated.'"

Jews who were formerly Christian, but are now deniers of the faith in Christ, are not to be
admitted in evidence at law, although they declare themselves Christians.'^**

Can testimony be clearer as to what was the aim of these enactments? Judaism and the very
name of Jew was an abomination, and must be rooted out of any Christian country. Wives are to
be separated from husbands, children from parents, baptized Jew from obdurate Jew. What room
was there here for true acceptance of Christ? Hearts broken with grief Minds tortured with
suffering. If Christ was incarnate anywhere, surely it was in the souls of those who stoutly
resisted him. But perhaps it was not Christ, but another in the shape of the outraged Nazarene.
One remembers Brownings' s passionate lines:

"Thou! if thou wast He. who at mid-watch came.
By the starlight, naming a dubious name!
And if, too heavy with sleep ~ too rash
With fear ~ O Thou, if that martyr-gash
Fell on Thee coming to take thine own,

And we gave the Cross, when we owed the Throne ~

"Thou art the Judge. We are bruised thus.
But, the Judgment over, join sides with us!
Thine too is the cause! and not more Thine
Than ours, is the work of these dogs and swine.
Whose life laughs through and spits at their creed!
Who maintain Thee in word, and defy Thee in deed!

"We withstood Christ then! Be mindful how
At least we withstand Barabas now!'"^^

Chapter XI

Another reign passed, and a sixth council sat at Toledo. There must be no half measure this
time. All Jews, willy-nilly, must be swept into the kingdom of God.

The inflexible perfidy of the Jews comes at length to be subdued by piety and the divine
grace. For by inspiration of the Most High God, our most excellent and Christian prince
(Chintila), inflamed with ardor for the faith, together with the clergy of his kingdom, has
resolved to eradicate to the uttermost their prevarication and superstition, not suffering the
residence of any one in the land, who is not a Catholic. For which zeal we render thanks to
the Almighty King of Heaven that he has created a soul so illustrious, and endued it with his
wisdom. May he bestow upon him a long life in this world, and glory everlasting in the
future.'^"

Piety? Divine grace? Inspiration? One can only echo the words in mockery. And what is the
product of such wise and gracious counsels? A Christianized Jewish population, cowed and
desperate, from which all the attributes of manhood have fallen away, leaving a cringing creature
whom our eyes can only look upon with pity. Yet because these Jews profess somehow the faith
of Christ we must number them in our story, and present this relic of them, which surely is the
strangest and saddest document one can find. It is an address presented to King Reccesuinth in
A.D. 653.

To the most clement and serene,

our lord the King Reccesuinth

we Hebrews of Toledo and all Spain,

as under subscribed and sealed.

Well, indeed, and justly, do we remember to have been compelled to draw up an

agreement in the name of the memory of King Chintila, of the observance of the

Catholic faith: and this we did. But forasmuch as the perfidy of our obstinacy, and the

inveteracy of our ancestral error, have impeded our true belief in the Lord Jesus

Christ, and sincere adhesion to the Catholic faith ~ we do now freely and cheerfully

vow to your glory, for ourselves, our wives, and our children, by this our declaration.

that henceforward we will retain no marriage usages or observances against the rules

of the Church.

We will not associate with the ever-to-be-execrated company of unbaptized Jews.

We will not contract marriages within the sixth degree (of consanguinity) as we have

done.

We will not contract marriages with our own nation, neither ourselves, nor our sons,

nor our posterity: but in each sex will hereafter marry only with Christians.

We will not practise circumcision, or celebrate Passover, Sabbath, or other festival

according to Jewish rites.

We will make no discrimination of food, nor in any way observe the abominable

usages, customs, or conversation of Jews.

But with sincere faith, grateful mind, and full devotion, will believe in, confess, and

adore, Christ the Son of the Living God, according to the evangeUcal and apostoUcal
doctrine.

We will truly keep, and sincerely embrace, all the usages of the holy Christian
religion, regarding holy days, marriage and diet, and every other observance, with no
reservation, objection, or false argument on our part, by means of which we might
hereafter practise what we hereby renounce, or fail to fulfil what we hereby promise.
Concerning swine's flesh, we thus engage ourselves, that, although on account of
long habit we are not able to endure it, yet we will eat without horror or disgust, of
such meats as are dressed along with it.

And if, in any of these matters aforesaid, we be found transgressors in the least
degree; or shall presume to act contrary to the Christian faith; or shall delay to
accomplish in word or deed such things as are agreeable to the Catholic religion ~ we
swear by the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, One in Trinity, and the true God, that every
singly transgressor among us may be punished with fire and stoning: or if the
clemency of your glory should spare his life, both himself and all that pertains to him
may be bestowed in slavery on whomsoever you may please: or whatever else you
may command to be done with him or his goods, shall be performed; not only by
virtue of your sovereign power, but also by the ratification of this our solemn
agreement.

Done at Toledo, 21st of March,
in the sixth year of your glory.
In the name of God.

Poor Christianized Jews. Straining at a gnat and swallowing a camel; accepting the whole
Nicene Creed, but still rejecting the flesh of swine!

But God can make even the wrath of man to praise Him; and at this very time a boy was
growing to manhood of Jewish birth, who was to become Primate of all Spain, and one of the
spiritual and intellectual lights of his age, "a rose among thorns," as one of his biographers.
Isidor de Bejah, calls him.

The parentage of Julian, Archbishop of Toledo, is unknown, and even the exact date of his
birth is uncertain; but it is probable that he was the son of one of Sisebut's compulsory converts.
He was educated at a religious institution in Toledo. We know little of his youth, except that
there sprang up between himself and a fellow student Gudilan, a sweet friendship, which
developed into a mutual aspiration after holiness. Both were inclined to an ascetic life, and
desired to enter a monastery. But this wish did not materialize, for in 656, Julian was appointed
Archdeacon of the Cathedral of Toledo, and Gudilan became a priest. Their friendship, however,
continued until Gudilan' s death in 679.

Soon the fame of Julian's learning was spread abroad, and ere long he was designated as
successor to the Archbishopric, to which he was eventually appointed in 680. In this capacity he
anointed Ervigio, King of Spain, and presided at the twelfth Council of Toledo. One wonders
how he must have felt at the insistence of the members of that Council on further harsh
enactments against the Jews. He could not have been altogether a party to them, for his charity of

mind was well known. His successor in the see spoke of him as a man who came very near to the
ideal of a servant of Christ. As an instance of Julian's friendly relations with the Jews, one may
relate how he once sent a copy of his book on the future life to Bishop Idalus of Barcelona by the
hand of a Jewish acquaintance, named Restitutus, to the grave displeasure of the recipient, who
wrote to the author marvelling that so orthodox an authority could entrust a spiritual writing to
"an infidel and godless Jew; and make as it were an animal a bearer of light."

Julian was a man of many brilliant gifts. His Apologeticum Fidei

expressed his own independent views on the Trinity to the Pope, and caused annoyance at Rome.
As an historian, his name lives as to the author of the Historia Rebellionis Pauli. But for our
purpose his work designed to convert the Jews is of more importance. The De Comprobatione
yEtatis Sextce Contra Judceos was written in 686 at the request of King Ervigio, to combat the
Jewish claim that the Messiah was not to come until the sixth millennium after the Creation, and
that therefore Jesus could not be he. Julian's refutation of the Jewish argument rested on the
chronology of the Greek Septuagint version of the Bible, which was deemed by the Church to be
a purer text than that of the Jews, the Massoretic Hebrew. He cannot, however, have felt that his
opponents would be greatly influenced, for in his dedication to the king, he remarks that "if the
Jew be not improved by the book, at least the Christian may derive some benefit from it." Yet his
prophetic position is strong enough. "Dost thou seek the kingdom of the Jews? he exclaims.
"There is none! Seekest thou the altar of the Jews? There is none! Seekest thou the sacrifice of
the Jews? It is no more! Seekest thou the priesthood of the Jews? It no longer exists! Everything
is gone of which Daniel of old prophesied that it would cease when the Most Holy was
anointed!" Out of his heart he cries to his own flesh and blood, "Viam perdidisti, viarn ergo
sequere, utper viam venias ad salutem " (Thou hast lost the way, therefore seek the way, that by
it thou mayest come unto salvation).

Julian of Toledo died on March 6th, AD. 690, full of years and honor, and mourned by all
Spain.

In Europe the Church held such undisputed possession of the religious field, that it was able to
tyrannize over the whole population from the king downwards, and to conduct its missionary
propaganda with unmitigated severity backed by the secular arm. But in the East the state had
not so wholly delivered itself into ecclesiastical hands even in Christian countries, and the
existence of rival religions provided a healthy competition of souls, which in part toned down the
physical manifestation oi odium theologicum. Of slander and vituperation there was plenty; but
hard words break no bones, and apart from isolated instances of aggression in the instruments of
warfare were largely the tongue and the pen. It remains for the apostles of Islam to make an
onslaught on opposition in any

way comparable to the methods of the Western Church, and even so the followers of the Camel-
driver were less intolerant than the followers of the Carpenter, and allowed a man to retain his
faith in that faith did not provoke acts of hostility to the dominant regime.

The approach to the Jew of the Eastern Church was therefore through disputation, so beloved
of the oriental mind; and when this practice was followed in Europe, it was largely at the

instigation of Jewish Christians.

The accounts of these disputations which have become available to us date almost entirely
from the seventh century, before the overwhelming conquests of Islam. There was the
disputation between Herbanus the Jew and Gregentius, Archbishop of Tephren in Ethiopia. The
victory of the Church in this case was due to a miracle. It was argued by the Archbishop that
Jesus was yet alive, and the Jews therefore, seeing a loophole for escape from the discussion,
promised to believe in him if they see him. Through the prayer of the Archbishop, the heavens
are opened with a clap of thunder, and the revelation is made, striking all the Jews with
blindness. Herbanus. however, exclaims: "When a man beholds his God, he receives a blessing
therefrom. But we, when we behold your God, receive evil. If such are the gifts He bestows on
those who come to Him, certainly he does not share the goodness of his Father." "It is your
blasphemies which have blinded you," replies the Archbishop. "If He renders evil for evil, to
whom are you committing us?" "At the font you will receive your sight." "And if we are
baptized and remain blind?" "I will baptize one and he will see; if not, do not believe." Herbanus
agrees. The baptized Jew receives his sight again, and Herbanus and all the other Jews follow his
example.

A second disputation is of more interest to us as it took place between Jewish Christians and
their brethren. The time is that of the Emperor Heraclius, when many Jews were forced into
Christianity. One, Jacob, had escaped baptism by pretending to be a Christian, until he was found
out by an exclamation made by him when falling down a flight of stairs. He was then taken and
baptized, and took his faith in such earnest, that he convened a series of meetings with other
forcibly baptized Jews, and reasoned with them that the religion they had acquired was indeed
the true one. The meetings are interrupted by the intrusion of an unbaptized Jew, who creates a
sensation by attacking Jacob's character as a former scoundrel, and by claiming that the Messiah
is yet to come: he also states that in any case the converts are in error from having been baptized
at the

wrong season. Finally after some turbulent gatherings, the Jew is silenced, and Jacob continues
his exposition without interruption to such effect that the Jew is convinced and asks for baptism.
He receives it, and sets out to win other Jews to Christ.

There are other disputations to which it is not necessary to refer here, but which may be
studied in Dr. Parkes' monumental work, from which the two examples quoted above have been
taken. '4'

The conquest of Spain by the Moors initiated a time of peace for the Jews, which they were not
again to enjoy for several centuries. The breath of the old-wise East blew softly across Europe,
bearing learning and enlightenment, and with wisdom came a measure of toleration. A golden
age dawned for Judaism. In the new humanitarian atmosphere the repressed genius of the
Hebrews blossomed and flowered, and produced distinguished scholars, poets and physicians. To
this state of general well-being the liberal Carlovingnian kings greatly contributed. Pepin,
Charlemagne and Louis le Debonnaire eased the Jewish burden, so that the populace began to
regard the former outcasts again as, "the only people of God." Charlemagne chose as one of his
ambassadors to the famous Caliph, Haroun al Rashchid, a certain Isaac, so that "Europe and Asia

beheld the extraordinary spectacle of a Jew conducting the political correspondence between the
courts of Aiz-la-Chapelle and Baghdad. "''*^ Louis, in turn, had as his most confidential adviser
Zedekiah, a Jewish physician. It was in vain for such fanatical churchmen as Agobard, Bishop of
Lyons, to protest against the royal favor extended to an "accursed" people; he was only snubbed
for his pains. The times were more in sympathy with the scholarly calligrapher, Alcuin.

We see the same mildness manifested to the Jews in England, where William Rufus
summoned a convocation of Jewish rabbis and Christian bishops at London to argue their
respective creeds before him, and swore that if the Jews gained the victory, then by St. Luke's
face he would embrace Judaism. The issue, however, was indecisive, in spite of a thunderstorm
and an earthquake, which the Christians construed as a sign from heaven in their favor. A further
account of King William's relations with the Jews is given in Holingshed's Chronicles^ and
illustrates Jewish Christianity in this reign.

The king being at Rhoan (Rouen) on a time, there came to him

divers Jews who inhabited that city, complaining that divers of that nation had renounced
their Jewish religion, and were become Christians: wherefore they besought him that, for a
certain sum of money which they offered to give, it might please him to constrain them to
abjure Christianity, and to turn to the Jewish Law again. He was content to satisfy their
desires. And so, receiving their money, called them before him; and what with threats, and
putting them otherwise in fear, he compelled divers of them to forsake Christ, and to turn to
their old errors. Hereupon, the father of one Stephen, a Jew converted to the Christian faith,
being sore troubled for that his son was turned a Christian (and hearing what the king had
done in like matters), presented unto him sixty marks of silver conditionally, that he should
enforce his son to return to his Jewish religion: whereupon the young man was brought
before the king, unto whom the king said: "Sirrah, thy father here complaineth that without
his license thou art become a Christian: if this be true, I command thee to return again on the
religion of thy nation, without any more ado." To whom the young man answered: "Your
grace (as I guess) doth but jest." Wherewith the king being moved, said: "What! thou
dunghill knave, should I jest with thee? Get thee hence quickly and fulfil my commandment,
or by St. Luke's face, I shall cause thine eyes to be plucked out of thine head." The young
man, nothing abashed thereat, with a constant voice answered: 'Truly I will not do it; but
know for certain that if you were a good Christian, you would never have uttered such words;
for it is the part of a Christian to reduce them again to Christ which are departed from him,
and not to separate them from him which rejoined to him by faith." The king, herewith
confounded, commanded the Jew to get him out of his sight. But the father, perceiving that
the king could not persuade his son to forsake the Christian faith, required to have his money
again. To whom the king said, he had done so much as he promised to do; that was, to
persuade him so far as he might At length when he would have had the king deal further in
the matter, the king, to stop his mouth, tendered back to him the half of his money, and kept
the other himself All which increased the suspicion men had of his infidelity.

In this age of revival of letters in Europe, in which the Jews played so prominent a part, it
would be surprising if there were no contribution from a Jewish Christian. Nor are we
disappointed; for there flourished at Huesca in Aragon, newly recovered from the Moors, that

distinguished servant of Christ, Moses Sephardi. Born at Huesca in 1062, he was baptized in his
native city on June 29th. 1 106, King Alfonso I of Aragon and VI of Castile standing godfather to
him. It being St. Peter's Day, and in honor of his royal sponsor, Moses took the baptismal name
of Petrus Alfonsi. lie was made physician-in-ordinary to the king: but it is not on his medical
skill that his fame rests, but as the author of the Disciplina Clericalis, a work consisting of a
series of moral stories, some of them of Arabian origin. The stories became quickly popular, and
their influence may be traced far and wide for generations. They enriched that other famous
medieval collection, the Gesta Romanorum; several of them were incorporated by Chaucer in his
Cantrerbury Tales, and some are found at the end of the great printer Caxton's translation of
Aisop 's Fables as thirteen apologues of "Alfonce."

Petrus Alfonsi also wrote a controversial work consisting of twelve Dialogues between Pedro
and Mose, i.e., himself before and after conversion, in which he attempted very lovingly and
humanely to influence his own people towards Christ. From the text it is clear that he belonged
to the school of thought which interpreted the prophets spiritually, and he believed that his nation
had been misled through treating them carnaliter, in a material sense. Alfonsi died in 1 1 10, at
the early age of forty-eight, and was fortunately spared witnessing some of the sufferings that
were again to fall on the Jews of Spain.

Chapter XII

The era of peace and tolerance was all too soon ended. The voice of a strange fanatic was
heard in Europe, a voice which was to herald the rape, torture and murder of thousands of
Israelites. Peter the Hermit was calling men to the First Crusade.

Surely one of the strangest anomalies in Christian history was this setting forth of thousands of
Christians to deliver the sepulchre of the Jewish Savior with their hands imbued with Jewish
blood. Even the heroic knight Godfrey de Bouillon declared that he would avenge the blood of
Jesus on that of the Jews. A madness seized the cites of the Rhine.

The abominal Germans and French rose up against them (the Jews), people of a fierce
countenance that have no respect to the persons of the aged, neither have they mercy upon
the young, and they said: "Let us be revenged for our Messiah upon the Jews that are among
us, and let us destroy them from being a nation, that the name of Israel may be had no more
in remembrance: so shall they change their glory and be like unto us; then will we go to the
East."

So runs a Jewish record. The bishop, Engelbert, who received at his palace the wretched
survivors of the massacre of Treves, greeted them with the words: "Wretches, your sins have
come upon you: ye who have blasphemed the Son of God and calumniated his mother. This is
the cause of your present miseries — this, if ye persist in your obduracy, will destroy you body
and soul forever." Some in despair accepted baptism as the price of life, but most refused to be
"defiled by the proud waters." Fathers rather killed their wives and daughters, brother slew
brother.

Barely had the first tempest of destruction passed over, than another succeeded it. The fanatical
cry of Hep! Hep! — Hierosolyma estperdita (Jerusalem is lost) — rang again through the land.
R. Joseph ben Joshua ben Meir records in his Chronicles:

That year (1 146) was also unto the house of Jacob a time of sorrow and oppression,
of emptiness, desolation and destruction.... For the priest Rudolph came into the land
of Ashkenaz (Germany) to search out, and to mark with the warp and the

woof (the red cruciform cloth badge of the crusaders) those which would join
themselves to go unto Jerusalem. And he spake falsehood against the Jews, the remnant
which was left from the first persecution.... And in all places he passed through, he
stirred up the dogs in them, saying: "Avenge ye our Lord's vengeance on his enemies
who are before us: after that we shall go." And when the Jews heard it ... they cried unto
the Lord, and said:

"Alas, O Lord! behold fifty years, like the years of a Jubilee, have not passed by, since
our blood was spilt like water for the sanctification of Thy great, mighty and fearful
Name, in the day of the great slaughter. If Thou forsake us forever, what wilt Thou do
for Thy great Name? Wilt Thou appoint misery a second time?" And the Lord heard
their cry, and remembered His covenant ... And He sent after this Belial, the Abbot, St.
Bernard of Clairvaux, a city which is in Tzarphath (France). And he called also after

their manner, saying: "Come, let us to up unto Zion, to the sepulchre of their Messiah;
but take ye heed that ye speak to the Jews neither good nor bad; for whoever toucheth
them is like as if he touched the apple of the eye of Jesus: for they are his flesh and his
bone...." And he took no ransom of the Jews, for he spake good of Israel from his
heart .... If it had not been for the compassion of the Lord in sending this priest, there
would have none escaped nor remained of them. Blessed be He who ransometh and
delivereth! Amen.'"^^

Bernard wrote many letters in defence of the Jews, in one of which the Archbishop of Mainz,
he asks: "Does not the Church obtain a richer victory over the Jews by daily bringing them over
from their errors and converting them, than if by the sword she had destroyed them all at a
blow?"

On through the Second and Third Crusades the trail of Jewish ruin runs, of which it is needless
further here to speak.

It is mercy to record that only one Jewish convert to Christianity turned against his brethren in
this time of terror — Nicholas Donin of Paris. So far as Judaism was concerned he was a free-
thinker, almost as heinous an offence to the Jew as becoming a Christian, and he rejected the
Oral Law as enshrined in the Talmud. For the years he lay under a ban of rabbinical
excommunication put upon him by the famous R. Jehiel of Paris. During those years he nursed
his grievances and become increasingly embittered against his co-religionists. At length he was
persuaded to embrace

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Christianity, and his motive in so doing seems to have been one of revenge. We have to deal here
with a warped soul, not a true convert. Donin' s actions after his "conversion" show only too
clearly the state of his mind. His harsh words are believed to have instigated the crusaders to a
massacre of the Jews in which 3,000 persons perished, and some 500 accepted the alternative of
baptism. He joined the Franciscan order, and as a monk he pursued his further design to destroy
all copies of the Talmud to which he had for so long been opposed. It is probable that this object
was indeed his main reason for adopting Christianity. In A.D. 1238 he went to Rome, and there
laid charges of blasphemy against the Talmud before Pope Gregory IX. The accusations were
accepted, and copies of Donin' s indictment under thirty- five heads were sent to Church
authorities with instructions that all copies of the Talmud should be seized forthwith, and if the
matter complained of appeared, the books were to be burned.

In France, Donin' s native country, the order was carried out with great ruthlessness, and the
King, Louis IX, even ordered Donin' s old enemy, R. Jehiel of Paris, together with three others,
Moses of Coucy, Judah ben David of Melun, and Samuel ben Solomon of Chateau-Thierry to
meet him in a public disputation (1240). When the arguments on both sides had been heard,
Donin was held to have proved his case, and no less than twenty-four wagon-loads of Talmuds
and Commentaries thereon were publically burnt. This, before the age of printing, was a terrible
blow to the Jews; but the venerable R. Jehiel, it is said, continued his talmudic lectures, reciting
his authorities from memory.

The Western Disputations, which have now to be considered, were of a different order to those
held in eastern countries in that they were held by command of the secular and religious

authorities, and the Jews were not voluntary participants. As a rule, we are thankful to say, the
Jewish Christians, who were the prime movers in these engagements, were of a different quality
to Nicholas Donin.

Nevertheless, the temper of the times, as we have elsewhere stated, did not always permit of
that mildness of demeanor and conciliatory spirit which should have been brought to the
discussion of sacred subjects. We cannot blame the Jewish Christian protagonists overmuch
when we find them lacking in a tolerance which was equally absent from some of the most
sainted Christians of their day, as well as from their Jewish opponents

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in debate. Severity seemed to go hand in hand with sweetness, and harshness with humanity. It is
difficult to understand how the same fountain could send out both bitter and sweet waters; but we
must accept the fact, and not try to confuse the issue by regarding the circumstances from our
own more enlightened viewpoint. Of one sin, perhaps, the Jewish Christians of medieval times
were as guilty as some of them are today, the sin of arrogance, as if their safer state backed by
the powerful authority of the Church gave them the right to address their own kinsman in a
derogatory and contemptuous way. All the more credit is due to those Jewish rabbis who were
required to answer them in the presence of ecclesiastical authority with the knowledge that a too
frankness of speech might be visited on their heads in dire punishment, and that at the least they
were fighting to retain the faith with which they were satisfied against a threat of compulsory
conversion.

Less than twenty- five years elapsed from the date of Donin' s dispute with R. Jehiel before a
second took place, this time between the convert Pablo Christiani and the famous R. Nahmanides
in the presence of James I of Aragon and his court.

Christiani hailed from Montpellier in France, and after his conversion became a monk of the
Dominican order. He was in great favor with his general, Raymond de Penyaforte, and after an
abortive missionary campaign among the Jews of Province, he desired to make a further effort in
Aragon. He felt that if the presence of the Jewish religious heads was assured, he would have a
better chance of success. Raymond de Penyaforte, therefore, obtained the consent of the king,
and Nahmanides and some others were summoned to a public disputation at Barcelona, held in
the palace from July 20 to 24, 1263. The terms of the debate were threefold:

[1] Whether the Messiah has appeared.

[2] Whether the Messiah announced by the Prophets was to be considered as a god, or
as a man born of human parents.

[3] Whether the Jews or Christians are in possession of the true faith.

Christiani' s method was to carry the war into the enemy's camp, and to attempt to prove from
the Talmud itself that Christianity was true. But he was no match for the skilled talmudist who
opposed him, and Nahmanides completely disarmed the attack by expressing his own disbelief in
the Haggadic (homiletic) passages in the Talmud on which Christiani

102

relied. The rabbi was cautioned by the Jews about following up the attack as likely to lead to
trouble, but intrepidly, with the king's permission, he carried on, and certainly had the better of
the discussion, as a typical passage on the Trinity shows:

Fra Pablo asked me — wrote Nahmanides ~ whether I beheved in the Trinity. I said
to him, "What is the Trinity? Do three great human bodies constitute the Divinity?"
"No." "Or are there three ethereal bodies, such as the souls, or are there three
angels?" "No." "Or is an object composed of the four elements?" "No." "What then
in the Trinity?" He said: "Wisdom, will and power." Then I said: "I also acknowledge
that God is wise and not foolish, that He has a will unchangeable, and that He is
mighty and not weak. But the term Trinity is decidedly erroneous; for wisdom is not
accidental in the Creator, since He and His wisdom are one. He and His will are one.
He and His power are one, so that wisdom, will and power are one. Moreover, even
were these things accidental in Him, that which is called God would not be three
beings, but one Being with these three accidental attributes." Our lord the king here
quoted an analogy which the erring ones had taught him, saying, that there are also
three things in wine, namely, color, taste and bouquet, yet it is still one thing. This is a
decided error; for the redness, the taste and the bouquet of the wine are distinct
essences, each of them potentially self-existent; for there are red, white, and other
colors, and the same statement holds good with regard to taste and bouquet. The
redness, the taste and the bouquet, moreover, are not the wine itself, but the thing
which fills the vessel, and which is, therefore, a body with the three accidents.
Following this course of argument, there would be four, since the enumeration should
include God, His wisdom. His will, and His power, and these are four. You would
even have to speak of five things; for He lives, and His life is apart of Him just as
much as His wisdom. Thus the definition would be — God, living, wise, endowed
with will, and mighty; the Divinity would therefore be five-fold in nature. All this,
however, is an evident error. Then Fra Pablo arose and said that he believed in the
Unity, which, none the less, included the Trinity, although this was an exceedingly
deep mystery, which event the angels and the

103

princes of heaven could not comprehend. I arose amd said: "It is evident that a person
does not believe what he does not know: therefore, the angels do not believe in the
Trinity." His colleagues then bade him be silent.'**

In spite of Nahmanides' able reasoning, the Dominicans claimed the victory, and Nahmanides
was forced in his own defence to publish the proceedings. The matter did not rest there, however,
for Christiani, securing a copy of the work, marked certain passages as blasphemous. A formal
complaint was made to the king which resulted in die burning of the pamphlet and a two-years
exile of its author.

Pablo Christiani further obtained a bull from Pope Clement IV (1264) for a censorship of the
Talmud, and himself sat on the commission appointed to expunge offending passages. On the
same commission sat Raymund Martini, author of that well-known polemical work against the
Jews the Pugio Fidei (Poignard of Faith). Christiani also obtained from Louis IX of France an
edict requiring Jews to wear distinguishing badges, which took the form of a small cloth circlet.
Even if his misguided efforts resulted in some annoyance and distress to his own people, they
laid the foundations of a better Christian appreciation of Jewish thought and belief

Another Jewish Christian, but far more learned, who helped to make Jewish literature better
known, was Abner of Burgos (1270-1348). He graduated as a physician at the early age of

twenty-five and had a taste for the peripatetic philosophy and astrology. His conversion caused
quite a stir in the Judaeo-Spanish communities, and curiously in a Hebrew essay Iggeret ha-
Gezerah (Epistle of Fate) addressed to a Jewish friend, he attempted in part to justify his action
on the ground of planetary influence. Abner was a prolific writer, and among his works which
have been preserved, either in Hebrew or Spanish, are the following: Moreh Tzedck (Teacher of
Righteousness), T'shubot al-Sepher Milhamot Adonai le-Kimhi (Reply to Kimhi's Book on the
Wars of the Lord). La Concordia de las Leyes (Harmony of the Laws, i.e., of Moses with the
Gospels). Libro de las Tres Gracias (Book of the Three Graces), and Minhat Kenaot (Offering of
Jealousy). He was appointed Sacristan of the Metropolitan Church of Valladolid.

Nearly a century after the disputation of Barcelona, another took place at Burgos, where the
protagonists were on the one side a Jewish Christian convert of Abner of Burgos and the Jewish
Christian John of Valladolid, and on the other side, Moses haCohen of Tordesillas. The
disputation

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was held in the presence of Archbishop Gomez of Toledo.

John of Valladolid (b. 1335) attempted to demonstrate from the Bible, the Messiahship and
Divinity of Jesus, the dogma of the Trinity and other doctrines. He employed some extraordinary
methods of exegesis, claiming, for instance, that the closed letter "mem" in the Hebrew word
I'marebeh (Isa. 9:6) "of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end"
indicated the perpetual virginity of Mary.

The disputation was a wind-up to a preaching tour of the Castilian provinces under an order
given by King Henry of Castile, whereby John hoped to be able to persuade his own people of
the truth of Christianity if the Jews were compelled to listen to him. He made the mistake, so
often repeated, of basing his argument on petty points of hermeneutics instead of on the wider
sweep of the evangelical message. The Jewish rabbis were easily able to evade the real issue
when it came to a battle of texts and the construction of words.

By far the most important of the disputations was that which occupied sixty- nine sessions, and
lasted from February 1413 to November 1414. It was held at Tortosa in Aragon, in the presence
of the antipope Benedict XIII (Pedro de Luna) and a large gathering of dignitaries both of the
Church and Synagogue. The solemn convocation had been convened to hear the convert Joshua
ben Joseph ibn Vives Al Lorqui (Geronimo de Santa Fe). Supporting him was the Jewish
Christian Andreas Baltram, afterwards Bishop of Barcelona. On the Jewish side, ready to answer
such questions as were put to them, were twenty-two (the Jewish records only give sixteen
names) of the most distinguished rabbis and scholars of Aragon under the leadership of Don
Vidal ben Benvenista. Benedict welcomed them in these words:

Men of the honored Hebrew race, the people whom God selected, though now cast
off on account of transgression. Fear nothing in this disputation, when I the Pope bid
you be of good courage. None shall injure or molest you, but speak freely and boldly
for your cause, repressing and fearing nothing. Geronimo has boasted to me his
capability of proving, even from your Talmud, that Messiah is come. Fear not in
disputing with him, but freely open your minds, because in a controversy, both parties
ought to enjoy an equal right of speech, and be accounted of equal standing. '"^^

In Joshua Al Lorqui, Christianity had a worthy Jewish

105

representative. He was a man of great attainments, a physician and dialectician of no
mean skill. His conversion came about as a result of correspondence with another great
Jewish Christian, Paul of Burgos, of whom we shall speak presently, and with wham he
remonstrated for changing his faith. He devoted his talents and wealth to convincing his
people of their errors, and received from them the unmerited nickname of Megaddef
(the slanderer) from the initials of his baptismal name Maestro Gcronimo de Santa Fe.
His best known work is his Probationes N.T. ex V.T. per qiias doctinia Talmud
improbitur, et dicitur liber contra errores Judceorum.

The disputation was carried on in a much better spirit. It had been agreed beforehand that all
disputed meanings were to be submitted to Baltram for decision, on account of his acknowledged
Hebrew and Chaldee scholarship. At the end, all but two of the Jewish disputants signed a
declaration that they had been fairly beaten, and more than five thousand Jews accepted Christ
and were baptized. The Jewish records are ominously silent about the result.

These discussions had one very important outcome. It was largely due to them that the
practice, carried on chiefly by the Dominicans, of compelling attendance at missionary meetings
originated. A decree of James II of Aragon (Dec. 18, 1297) is in these terms:

We also desire and ordain, that the brethren of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans)
do offer the Word of God to the Jews and Saracens of both sexes, by preaching,
arguments, conversation, or declaration of the Christian faith. These shall assemble at
their call, and listen without interruption to the preaching. Also, to avoid the possibility
of their suppressing the conviction of the truth by stubborn silence, they shall
reverently answer to the interrogations or objections of the said brethren; they shall also
be compelled, when desired, to give access to their books for the investigation of any
matters, that so the truth may be the better sifted by a mutual exhibition and collation of
writings, and thus be brought to more open light.

Whether or no the practice was a wise one is difficult to judge at this interval of time. The Jews
could hardly be expected to make a voluntary audience. But this at least must be said in favor of
the method; it gave opportunity to the Jewish religious leaders to offer publicly a clear statement
of their faith with full liberty of speech, under safeguards, before

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Gentile ecclesiastics who were deeply ignorant of Judaism. It helped to make patent to the most
bigoted that the Jew was a thinking sentient human being with a deep religious consciousness,
and not a godless pariah, whom to slay was a Christian service. It substituted the argument of
reason for stupid cruelty and lust. The age of disputations marks a definite turning point in the
treatment of the Jews, which was to head up to humanism.

From that time, massacres gradually ceased, at least in civilized countries, and the ghetto walls,
if they isolated, also protected the son of Abraham. Jewish Christianity, albeit unwittingly, had
saved Israel from some of the more terrible aspects of anti-Semitism.

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Chapter XIII

Despite the general antipathy to the Jews in the Middle Ages, many of them were allowed to
hold high offices of slate, especially those who had accepted the Christian faith. Neither did the
most noble houses disdain to give their daughters in marriage to eminent Jewish Christians.
Baptism appeared to exercise an almost magical power in removing the Semitic "taint," so that
while the genius of the Hebrew remained and guided the policies of many parts of Europe, the
Jewish flesh and blood which had inherited that genius underwent a metamorphosis, and the
supposed injurious qualities were neutralized. As the conversions during this period, whether
compulsory or real, were numerous, it came about that in the principal Jewish centers, and
especially in Spain, few of the patrician families could say that they had not Jewish blood in their
veins. As late as the eighteenth century in Portugal, when King Joseph I thought of publishing an
edict commanding all who were of Jewish descent to wear a yellow cap, his minister the Marquis
de Pambal presented himself before the monarch with three of the caps. "What are these for?"
inquired the king. "One is for your Majesty, one for the Grand Inquisitor, and one is for myself"
was Pambal' s reply. The pure Aryan ancestry demanded by modem Germany, would practically
exclude the whole German population if traced back far enough. The ridiculous side of the Nazi
inquisition is exposed by a story they tell. Little Red Riding Hood is walking in the Grunewald,
when she meets the wolf "Where are you going?" asks the wolf "To look for my grandmother,"
replies Red Riding Hood. "Ah!" says the wolf, slyly, "there are many people hooking for their
grandmothers these days." Even the royal house of the Hapsburgs, tracing its ancestry through
the Counts of Aventin to the Pierleonis, would be of Jewish Christian origin.

It is instructive to follow the fortunes of two eminent Jewish Christian families, who may be
taken as representing — the Pierleonis of Italy, just mentioned, and the Carthagenas of Spain.

The Pierleoni family was founded in the eleventh century by one Baruch, a wealthy Jewish
banker of Rome. On becoming a Christian, he latinized his name to Benedictus Christianus and
married the daughter of a Roman nobleman. His son Leo de Benedicto Christiano became a
powerful figure in Roman political life, affiliating himself with the papal

108

party, and owning a castle in Trastevere. His epitaph quoted by Baronius under the year A.D.
1111 shows the esteem in which he was held. It is noticeable that the Jewish side of his paternity
is omitted in the epitaph, only his noble Roman mother is mentioned.''*'^

Leo's son, Petrus Leonis, from whom the family took its name of Pierleoni, was even more
distinguished and appears to have attained the rank of consul. This Petrus Leonis continued his
father's policy, controlling the Isola Tiberina in addition to the castle in Trastevere, and having
another castle opposite the Tiber bridge near the old theater of Marcellus, which was included in
the fortifications. He was the leader of the papal party and the most faithful and powerful
protector of the popes. Urban II died in Petrus' castle, and the latter defended the cause of
Paschal II against the antipopes and the emperor. When Henry V came to Rome, Petrus Leonis
was at the head of the papal legation which effected a reconciliation between the pope and the
emperor, but Paschal 's attempt to make the son of Petrus prefect of the city caused a riot.^'*^

Petrus assisted in the liberation of Pope Gelasius II, and took a prominent part in the election

of Calixtus II. The latter pope signified his recognition of this service, by appointing his son
Petrus Pierleoni, head of the papal legation to France, and afterwards using him for several
important missions. Petrus died in 1 128, having seen his son created Cardinal Pierleoni, and a
daughter married to King Roger of Sicily.

Two years later a remarkable event happened. On the throne of the Jewish Christian, apostle
Peter, sat another Jewish Christian of the same name — Petrus, Cardinal Pierleoni, had been
elected pope as Anacletus II. There was opposition, for a rival faction at Rome had elected
Innocent II. Anacletus was vilified by his enemies, who even accused him of incest. The
Archbishop of Ravenna stigmatized his tenure of office as, '' Judaicce perifidoi heresis'' (the
heresy of Jewish unbelief): but even so saintly a man as St Bernard of Clairvaaux, who upheld
the claims of Innocent, and was not unfriendly to the Jews, did not realize the irony of his remark
in an epistle to Lothair, that "to the shame of Christ, a man of Jewish origin was come to occupy
the chair of St. Peter." Despite calumination, however, Anacletus remained in office until his
death in 1138. Afterwards the Pierleoni family made peace with the rival party.

So many honors heaped upon its members might be thought to have sufficed for any one family:
but further distinction was to follow, for a brother of Anacletus, Jordan Pierleoni, was elected
Senator, and a little

109

later as Patricius became in 1 144 head of the Roman Republic. So, for a time in this Jewish
Christian house, Rome and Jerusalem were reconciled. In the same century, another brother, Leo
Pierleoni, was papal delegate at Sutir (1 142) together with a nephew, Petrus. Cencius Pierleoni,
some years afterwards, was scriniarius of the Church, and John Pierlecni was appointed Elector
by Pope Innocent III, and in this capacity chose Gregory Petri Leonis Rainerii as Senator, The
family continued to extend its influence for many subsequent generations.

The second family with which we are concerned is that of the Carthagenas in Spain, founded
by the celebrated Rabbi Solomon Halevi, afterwards Bishop Paul of Burgos.

Solomon Halevi, son of Isaac Halevi, was bom at Burgos about 1351, and became one of the
wealthiest men of that city, besides being deeply learned in the Talmudic literature. He officiated
as Rabbi of Burgos and was highly praised for his scholarship and piety by Isaac ben Sheshet
with whom he carried on a lengthy correspondence.''*'* Abarbanel also, in his commentary on
Isaiah 34, calls him a wise man. In 1376 he married, and his wife bore him four sons and one
daughter. When in his fortieth year he began a serious study of the claims of Christianity, being
led thereto by his intercourse with Christians and the loan to hin by a friend of Thomas Aquinas'
treatise De Legibus. He was induced to notice the Messianic prophecies in the Old Testament,
especially Jeremiah 31, and from this point he went on to read the New Testament, and
particularly the Pauline Epistles. It was these that finally brought about his conversion, as he
afterwards said, ''Paulus me adfindim convertit''

On July 21, 1390, Solomon was publicly baptized in the Cathedral of Burgos, together with
his mother and children, and took the name of Paul de Santa Maria: his brothers Pedro Suarez
and Alvaar Garcia were also baptized, but his wife Joanna, whom he dearly loved, would not
then be convinced, and he was forced for a time to separate from her. She was reconciled later,
and when she died in 1420 was buried in the Church of S. Pablo, built by her husband.

Forty years of age as he was, well versed in philosophy and theology. Paul did not disdain to

sit among the young theological students of Paris to acquire his Doctorate of Divinity. On one
occasion at this time, he was privileged to preach before Pedro de Luna, afterwards Pope
Benedict XIII.

After Paris came a visit to London, from which city he sent to Don Meir Alguades a Hebrew
satire on the Jewish feast of Purim. Returned to his

110

native land, he was soon appointed Archdeacon of Trevino and in 1402 was made Bishop of
Carthgena, having been for three years Canon of Seville. He had not forgotten his own people,
and through his instrumentality, many Jews were won for Christ, including the famous Dr.
Joshua Al-Lorqui, already mentioned. As the Spanish chronicles say, '' copiosas frutos de
conversione'" were granted to him.

By this time the fame of his learning and Christian piety had reached the ears of King Henry
III of Castile, the invalid, who, on his death appointed Paul by will Keeper of the Royal Seal in
succession to Don Pedro Lopez de Ayala, and tutor of his infant son and successor, John II: he
was also made a member of the Council of Regency with the Queen-Mother Donna Catalina and
the Infante Don Fernando during the young king's minority. He continued in high favor at court,
and rendered important state service until his death.

In 1414, the Archbishopric of Burgos fell vacant, and Paul was appointed to the seat. It was a
great day of rejoicing in the city of Burgos when the new Bishop came with bells ringing to his
palace in the place of his birth. Among those who awaited him there were his old mother, Maria,
and his now believing wife, Joanna. These were not long spared to him, however, for his mother
died in 1416 and his wife in 1420. He himself lived on until April 29, 1435, and saw with pride
his son Alfonso elevated to his own bishopric during his lifetime. He died at the advanced age of
eighty-three, and was buried in the family vault that he had built.

The saintly man left a testament to his son that speaks well for the sincerity of his faith and
his deep devotion to the service of Christ. As it is the fullest personal memorial of any Jewish
Christian of this period, we may usefully quote a fairly lengthy extract.

What would you most wish, my dearly beloved son, that I should leave as a
legacy to you at my death? What could be better than to add to the knowledge you
already possess of Holy Scripture, which will strengthen your feet in the path of a
well directed zeal for Christian truth?

It is this which I bear in my heart, of which I make confession with my lips, and
concerning which I understand the words of the prophet "The father shall teach
his children thy truth."

I was not myself thus taught in the days of my youth, but was brought up in
Jewish blindness and incredulity; while learning Holy Scripture from

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unsanctified teachers, I received erroneous opinions from erring men, who cloud
the pure letter of Scripture by impure inventions, as such teachers have been wont
to do. But when it pleased Him whose mercies are infinite to call me from
darkness to light, and from the depth of the pit to the open air of heaven, the
scales seemed as it were to fall from the eyes of my understanding, and I began to

read Holy Scripture with my mind in part released from the bonds of prejudice
and unbelief I began to seek for truth, no longer trusting to the power of my own
intellect, but with a humbled spirit, praying God from the heart to make known to
me what might be for the salvation of my soul. Day and night I sought help from
Him, and thus it came to pass that my love for the Christian faith so much
increased, that at length I was able openly to confess the belief which my heart
had already received. Afterwards, as time passed on, I devoted myself yet more to
the study of Holy Scripture, reading both the Testaments, hearing the words of
living teachers, and consulting the writings of holy men, our predecessors: thus I,
who was formerly a teacher of error, am become, by the grace of God, a learner of
truth, and have continued to the great age I have now attained. I can say in truth
that amid the pressure of worldly business, and the cares of my bishopric, which
have occupied much of my time, there is no consolation to be compared to that I
have found in the contemplation of the Eternal God by the study of His holy and
spotless word.

One circumstance, however, I cannot pass over in silence, that to us, the
descendants of Levi, have been fulfilled the promises written so many hundreds
of years ago: "Wherefore there shall not be for the Levite a portion or inheritance
among his brethren: the Lord Himself is his inheritance, as the Lord thy God has
said to him." Truly God Himself is our inheritance. Christ is our portion, who has
said of old time that He shall cleanse the sons of Levi and purify them, and they
should be the Lord's, to present this offering, which He will not only look upon,
but accept at our hands. It is useful and necessary that you should know alt the
mercies of my God towards me, and a true and sincere memorial of them cannot
be taxed with pride. To you, in particular. I address these recollections, that what
you have not seen with your eyes may yet be engraven on your memory as
coming from the lips of your father, that in your turn you may tell those who are
younger than you, and they to their descendants, not to forget the

112

words of the Lord nor cease from the study of His Holy Word.

LaFuente says of Paul of Burgos, that he was, "the most eminent and the wisest man that
Spain produced in the fifteenth century, and he may also be regarded as the most eminent in the
Church." It is difficult to imagine that such a man could be associated with the twenty-four harsh
enactments against the Jews issued by the Council of Regency in 1412 in the name of the
youthful King John, and one must look to the arrogant bearing of some of the local Jewish
magnates for extenuating circumstances. That he loved his own brethren cannot be doubted, and
in his best known work, Dialogus Pauli et Sauli Contra JudcBos, sive Scrutinium Scripturarum
he wrote:

As for the remnant of Israel, which shall remain at the coming of Christ, we
firmly believe that when the delusion of Antichrist has been made manifest, they
will turn in truth to the Messiah, and for his sake endure much persecution,
continuing to the end steadfast in the faith .... Thus at last shall the whole nation
of Israel be brought to the faith in Christ.

He thus shows himself to have had the same hope as his apostolic namesake, whom also in

other respects he so closely resembled, Paul is further remembered for his Addenda to the
Postills of the Bible of Nicolas de Lyra.

Paul of Burgos was worthily followed by his four sons. The second, Don Alfonso de
Carthagena (1385-1456), first studied law and philosophy, and was made successively Deacon of
Santiago and Segovia, Archdeacon of Composstella, and eventually as we have seen followed
his father as Bishop of Burgos. Together with this elder brother Don Gonzalo Garcia de Santa
Maria, he represented Spain at the Council of Basle (143 1), and was treated with great respect
for his learning. He was spoken of as "the joy of Spain and the delight of religion." At one time.
Pope Eugenius IV, hearing that he was about to pay a visit to Rome, remarked in full conclave
"that in the presence of such a man he felt ashamed to be seated in the chair of St. Peter." Don
Alfonso published numerous works including: A Chronicle of the Kings of Spain, a treatise on
Christian morality, entitled Instruction for Knights and Memorials of Virtue, translations of
several books of Seneca and Cicero into Spanish, and a commentary on the twenty-sixth Psalm.

The eldest brother, Don Gonzalo Garcia de Santa Maria (1379-1448), was hardly less
distinguished. He was a student both or the classics and

113

of rabbinical literature. Gonzalo represented Aragon at the Councils of Basle and Constance. He
was in turn Archdeacon of Briviesca, Bishop of Astorga, Bishop of Placentia, and Bishop of
Siguenza.

The third son, Alvar Garcia deSanta Maria, was for some time secretary to John II of Castile,
and later to John's uncle, Don Fernando, on his becoming King of Aragon. He wrote the
Chronicles of John II down to the year 1420.

The fourth son, Pedro de Carthagena, did not enter the Church, but is known as a noble
knight and courageous soldier. At a tournament held in the presence of King John of Castile, he
won the prize in jousting with the flower of Spanish chivalry. He was one of the knights who
played a valiant part at the battle of Granada, 143 1 . Don Pedro occupied the position of member
of the municipality (the Cortes) of Burgos, and as late as the eighteenth century, according to Da
Costa, the family, perpetuated through him, "still preserved in Spain the rank and high esteem
which their ancestors formerly obtained. "'"^^

During the civil war which took place in the reign of Henry IV of Castile, the Carthagenas
sided with the Velascos, Counts of Haro, against the Manricos, Counts of Trevino. In one of the
skirmishes, Don Alvar de Carthagena, son of Don Pedro, was killed.

Such in brief is the record of these two distinguished Jewish Christian families who faithfully
served their day and generation.

During this period, we hear little of Jewish Christians in the Eastern Church, but undoubtedly
there were a considerable number among the Nestorians and Jacobites. One name, however, is
outstanding of a man who was greatly honored by his contemporaries and is still held in the
highest esteem, Gregory Abu'l Faraj, surnamed Bar-Hebraeus, Maphrian (Primate) of the
Eastern Church.

Bom at Melitena in 1226, Gregory was the son of a Jewish physician name Aaron, who
seems to have embraced Christianity. In his early childhood he already gave promise of
greatness, and besides mastering the Greek, Syriac and Arabic languages, he also studied
philosophy, theology and medicine. His father was instrumental in curing a disease from which
Saurnavinus, a Tartar general, was suffering; and this led to the migration of the family to
Antioch. Here Gregory commenced the life of an anchorite, and was visited in his cave by Mar
Ignatius, Patriarch of Saba,

114

who was to become his great friend and supporter. It was Ignatius who ordained him Bishop of
Gubos, on September 14, 1246, when he was only twenty years of age. After many other
preferments, it was Ignatius again who created him Maphrian of the eastern Church with his scat
at Tagrit on the Tigris, about A.D. 1266.

W.E.W. Carr in a short biography'^" writes of Gregory that:

During his forty years' episcopate, he was never known to have received a
farthing from anyone. When the faithful brought purses of money to him as a
means of expressing their thanks, he always refused to receive them, and if they
were left in his chamber he would always say to the first of his disciples who
happened to come: "Take these things out of my sight."

He possessed the Jewish whole-heartedness and love of thoroughness in the discharge of his
work. He was a man whose religious zeal was founded upon conviction which had only taken
root in his soul after the deepest upheavals and fierce struggles with despair and unbelief He
knew how to tackle the most delicate situations in the spirit of the true gentleman. He was
possessed of a saving sense of humor and knew the importance of the occasional relaxation of
the mind from the strain imposed by work and study. While his own mind was clear and resolute
on the matter of the doctrine and discipline of the church, theological and ecclesiastical disputes
were his abomination.

Gregory was very much impressed with the way in which his life seemed to have been
marked out in exact periods. "The year in which Saturn and Jupiter were in conjunction in
Aquarius," he wrote, "was that in which I was born. Again, twenty years later, when they were in
conjunction in Libra, I was consecrated Bishop. After another twenty years, when they were in
conjunction in Gemini, I attained the rank of Maphrian, and after another twenty years, when
they are again in conjunction in Aquarius, I think my time has come to depart this life." Nor was
he mistaken, for he passed away on July 30, 1286. His last words to his disciples were: "Abide in
love, and be not separated from each other, for when ye are gathered together in charity, I will be
in the midst of you." His funeral at Maraga was on a vast scale, all shops were closed, and
everyone vied with the other to pay him a last tribute. The sterling qualities of his mind have
been perpetuated in a whole catalogue of scholarly works, of which perhaps the best known are
his Syriac Chronicle and his Syriac Grammar.

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Chapter XIV

Honors did not always reward the Jewish converts, and in some countries they were deprived
of all their possessions on baptism. This was because as Christians, they ceased to be lawful prey
of the ruler. The test at least established the sincerity of their professions of faith, but it
frequently left them in the direst poverty. The situation led in England to the establishment of
that interesting institution the Domus Conversorum, or Converts Home. The first of its kind
appears to have been built in the neighborhood of Southwark by Richard of Bermondsey in
1213 : it was known as "The Hospital of Converts." Later, there was a Domus both in Oxford and
London founded by Henry III, the former about 1234 and the London house some two years
earlier.

Wood (City of Oxford) speaks of the Oxford Domus as:

a place for those Jews and infidels that were converted to the Christian faith in
Oxon to reside in and have sufficient maintenance from the King and other pious
well-disposed people. In a short time after it was so brought about and no small
number of these converts had their abode in this place and were taught and
instructed in the doctrine of the church, and had an orthodox and learned priest to
govern them. Mention of these converted people I often find in records stiled by the
sir-name le convers and, more particularly, in St Frideswyde's register wherein in
divers charters there be the names of Eve convers, Eilliam le convers and Nicholas
le convers and Ailb le convers and the like.

The Home was situated near what is now Blue Boar Street.

Of far greater importance and with a long and eventful history was the London Domus. The
original Charter of Henry III (translated from the Latin) runs as follows:

The king to the archbishops, etc., greeting. Be it known that we, by the institution of
God, and for the safety of our soul, and of the souls of our predecessors and of our
heirs, have granted, and by this our charter confirmed for us and for our heirs to the
house which we caused to be built in the street which is called New Street, between
the old and new temple of London, for the maintenance of the converted brethren,
and those to be converted from Judaism to the Catholic faith, and for the aid of the

116

maintenance of these brethren that dwelt in the said house, the houses and lands
which belonged to John Herberton, in London, and are in our possession as
forfeited (except the garden which belonged to the said John in the aforesaid New
Street, and which we granted formerly by our charter to the venerable Father
Rudolph, of Chichester, our Chancellor), and all other forfeitures which in our time,
by felony, or from any other cause, will fall to us in our city, or in the suburbs of
our city, London. Wherefore we wish, and firmly injoin for us and for our heirs, that
the aforesaid house have and hold freely, and quietly, and in peace, for the
maintenance of the converted brethren, and those to be converted from Judaism to
the Catholic faith, in aid for the maintenance of these brethren that dwell in the
same house, the houses and lands which belonged to John Herberton, in London,

and are in our possession, as if our forfeiture (except the garden which belonged to
the same John in the aforesaid street, New Street and which formerly by our charter
we granted to the venerable Father Rudolph, Bishop of Chichester, our Chancellor),
and all other forfeitures which in our time, by felony, or from whatever other
causes, will fall to us in our city, London, as we have beforesaid, etc.'^'

The street in which the Domus was situated eventually became Chancery Lane, and the
building itself finally came to be used as a storehouse for the rolls of Chancery, and its chapel
became the Rolls Chapel. For a considerable period, from about 1330, the office of Master of the
Rolls was combined with wardenship of the Jewish Converts' Home, and in these capacities
Thomas Cromwell, vicar-general of Henry VIII, resided there. Had the. Domus continued to
function into the nineteenth century, a professing Jew, Sir George Jessel, made Master of the
Rolls in 1873, would have been its warden. By this time, however, the buildings had been
demolished, and an Act of 1891 removed the last legal traces of its functions.

During the long period of the Home's activities numerous Jewish Christians of both sexes
were inmates, and one, Martin, son of Henry Woodstock (1413-1468) lived there for fifty-five
years. Two women, a mother and her daughter ~ Joanna and Alice of Dartmouth, who came to
the Home in 1409, remained for nearly as long, forty and forty-five years respectively. The
number of Jewish Christians who availed themselves

117

of the protection of the Domus from the date of its foundation ran into several hundreds, and
among the more interesting names mentioned in the records are the following:

Elizabeth, daughter of Rabbi Moses ''episcopus Judaiorum" 1339. Remained seventeen
years and married a London tailor named David Pole.

John de Santa Maria (1371-1405). Perhaps a relative of the Bishop of Burgos.

Nathaniel (formerly Jehudah) Menda (1598-1608). He hailed from the Barbary States, and
was publicly baptized in London by John Foxe, author of The Book of Martyrs.

Philip Ferdinand from Poland (1598-1600). He had been professor of Hebrew at Oxford and
Cambridge, and later of Leyden University.

The records end in 1608, though as late as 1717 a Jewish Christian of London petitioned
King George I for a grant from the funds oi Domus. From the time of the expulsion of the Jews
from England in 1290 until their restoration by the Protector Oliver Cromwell, Jewish Christians
were about the only Jews the citizens of London ever saw.

The original grant to each inmate was 1 1/2 d. for males, equal today to about 2s. 6d., and Id
for females. The total annual grant from Henry Ill's treasury was about £4,000, but this was not
always forthcoming and the converts were in great distress. A supplementary income was
therefore granted, raised by a poll-tax, called the chevage, on all unconverted Jews above the age
of twelve. '^^

One Jew, who might have become an inmate of the Domus, was forced to leave England with
Edward I's banishment of the Jews — Nicolas de Lyra (or Nicolas of Lynn), who was to become
the heralds of the Reformation. ''Nicolaus Lyrannus ex Judceorum genere Anglus,'" writes Bale;
but it is only right to state that his Jewish birth has been contested. There are good grounds,
however, for believing that he was a Jew. Having been educated at Oxford, he went to Paris,

where he was baptized and joined the Franciscan order at Vemeiul in 1291. Later he became
Doctor of Theology and taught at the Sorbonne until 1325, when he was appointed Provincial of
the Franciscans in Burgundy. Well versed in Talmudical literature, he favored the literal
interpretation of Scripture after the method of the great Jewish commentator Rashi. For him, die
intention of the author was the most important canon of exegesis, and he set himself in his chief
work Postillce, Perbetuce, sive Brevia

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Commentaria in Universa Biblia to explain the Old and New Testaments on what he held to be
the corrected principles, not sparing in the course of the work to castigate the abuses prevailing
in the Church. These commentaries proved of such service to Martin Luther, that Pflug, Bishop
of Naumberg. was moved to write the famous couplet:

Is Lyra non lyrasset,
Lutherus non saltasset.

Other writers, after Niclas' death in 1340, made additions to the Postills, among them, as we
have already noted being the Jewish Christian Bishop Paul of Burgos. Nicholas also wrote a
work for his own brethren entitled, De Messia Ejusque Adventu Prceterito.

Thus behind the Reformation, as behind almost every spiritual and political movement of
note, one finds the personality of a Jewish Christian.

Our history now halts for a brief space in its progress to watch the passage of a strange
procession across the face of Europe from the Caucasian mountains to the Alps.

When Ebionitism ceased to be an active force in Christian affairs, it bequeathed, at least its
mantle, to whoever would protest against the trinitarian concept of the Gentile Church. Already
in the late third century, Jewish Christianity had communicated some of its foundation and
apostolic beliefs to the Syrian Christians. In those days flourished Paul of Samosata, Patriarch of
Antioch, anathematized for his belief that the man Christ Jesus had attained to perfection through
obedience, and had won through to union with God through subjugating his own will to the will
of God. Paul wrote in his Treatise to Sabinus that

in fixity and resoluteness of character, Jesus likened himself to God; and having
kept himself free from sin, was united to God and was enabled to grasp the power to
work wonders. These miracles show that over and above the will, he possessed one
and the same activity with God; he thus won the title of Redeemer and Savior....

By struggle and hard work he overcame the sins of our forefathers: he succeeded in
perfecting himself and through his moral excellence was united to God, having
attained to unity and identity of will and activity through advances on the path of
good works. . . . Thus he inherited the name which is above all names, the

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prize of love and affection vouchsafed to him in grace.... We do not allot praise to
those who obey merely in virtue of their nature; but to those in good measure who
submit because their attitude is one of love.

This was perhaps the doctrine of the apostle Paul, who held that "Jesus was made perfect

through the things that he suffered": certainly it was that of the Jewish Christians of the third and
fourth centuries, who believed that by living the Christ life all men could attain to Christhood.
From Paul of Samosata the sect of Paulicians took its name and many of its tenets, and with
some Gnostic admixture, continued through several centuries in Armenia to propagate its
iconoclastic and adoptionist faith. The old Jewish Christians had found a voice with which they
might still speak through the mouths of men of another race.

Out of the Paulicians came the Thonrake, Josephinists, Bogomils, Cathars, Albigensis, and
Waldenses, and all their off-shoots, changing their names in their manifold manifestation, but
scarcely their basic doctrines, as the stream of missionaries made their way through Bulgaria,
Gosnia and Hungary, along the Carpathians to the Alps and Pyrenees.

We may fairly regard these groups as part of one movement, a protesting movement,
preserving alive the elemental spirit of Jewish Christianity until the Catholic Church should be
ready again to renew its contact with its Jewish antecedents. Their Key of Truth laid emphasis on
the baptism of Christ: "then it was that he became Savior of us sinners, and was filled with
godhead; then was he sealed, anointed, called by the Voice, addressed as the Beloved One."'"
They denied the pre-existence of Christ, attacked Mariolatry and Transubstantiation; their
congregations were composed of the "elect," and it was in the power of any of their number to
attain to Christhood.

The Bogomil manifestation was chiefly in Bulgaria and Bosnia from the tenth to the
thirteenth century, whence the sectaries were also known as Bulgaria or Bougres {Bulgarorum
hceresis). Jewish converts were among its propagandists, drawn largely from the literalist Jewish
sect of Karaites. One, a certain Zachariah of Kiev, succeeded in influencing with Jewish views
some of the highest ecclesiastics of Russia and even the Tzar Ivan III The conversion of the
kingdom of the Chazars to Judaism was another cause that made the slavic peoples incline
favorably to Jewish and Cristo- Jewish doctrine. A Byzantine Jewess Sarah (Theodora) even
became Tzarina of Bulgaria (1335-1355) as the wife of Ivan

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Alexander. She had voluntarily embraced Christianity, and according to Poppof, a Bulgarian
ecclesiastical historian, her reign encouraged both Jews and heretics to profane icons and the
eucharist.

Further west the protesting movement manifested itself a Catharism early in the eleventh
century, with headquarters in the neighborhood of Toulouse. Here as in Bosnia and Bulgaria, the
simplicity and earnestness of the lives of the sectaries appealed to the people in contrast to the
pomp and worldliness of the prevailing Church. The Cathars recognized two orders, the
credentes, the ordinary believer, and the petfecti, the elect who acted as ministers. A credens
became aperfectuis after undergoing the rite of consolation (consolamentum), when he was
named Peter, a common practice both in the eastern and western branches of the movements.

In the rite of full initiation, the Perfect (who admits the novice like the Master of the
Freemasons' lodge) delivers an address calling him (as in Armenia) by the name
Peter, and explaining the adoption and indwelling of the Spirit in the elect. He
repeats and comments on the Lord's Prayer clause by clause. Then comes the
Renouncement, not only of Satan and his kingdom on earth, but of his babylonish
church, its magical rites, carnal baptism, and the sign of the cross impressed on the

forehead. A true spiritual baptism follows, with a book of the Gospels laid on the
head by the Perfect's hands: and while passages of Scripture are recited, the newly
admitted brother receives the apostolic power to bind and loose. '^"^

For several centuries the Cathars of Albigenses, as they came to be called from Albi a fief of
Toulouse, carried on a losing fight with the papacy, and it is worthy of notice that the institution
which was primarily responsible for Jewish tribulation and expulsion from Spain and Portugal —
the Inquisition ~ was called into existence for the extermination of a heresy which owed its
origin to Jewish Christianity. When the massacre of Piedmont put an end to the protesting
movement a new spirit was aflame in the Church. Milton's prayer was already in course of
fulfillment

"Avenge, O Lord. Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones
Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold;
Even them who kept Thy truth so pure of old.
When all our fathers worshipped stocks and stones."

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Chapter XV

The fifteenth century in Europe witnessed the apotheosis of clericalism. A dictatorship by
clergy, almost more powerful than the pope, dominated the lives of kings and people. At the best
bigoted, at the worst brutally debased, the clergy stood solidly in the way of enlightenment and
progress. Scarcely subject to any laws but their own, they menaced the security of every state
and individual. Every element of opposition was ruthlessly trampled down. Having suppressed
the Cathars, they once more turned their attention to unyielding Jews.

During the long course of centuries, the clergy acted upon one undeviating line of
policy, uninfluenced by wars, change of dynasty, or personal feelings, to drive the
Jews into the bosom of the Church. Since the time of Sisebut the Goth, all direct
compulsion in the matter of baptism had been discountenanced by papal authority
and general sentiment. But, notwithstanding the dictates of abstract right and
reason, bishops and friars had plundered and murdered such as refused to be
converted, while civil penalties and restrictions were likewise heaped upon the
recusants. An exemption from all this might be purchased by enduring the
sprinkling of a few drops of water; yet this trifle in itself, was the "crux fidei" to a
Jew, as was the burning of a few grains of incense before a senseless idol to the
primitive Christian, with the alternative of the lions of the amphitheater. The
temptation was in each case intensely seductive, but the iniquity of the Spanish
churchman, with his organized Inquisition to preclude the possibility of receding,
was altogether unparalleled in pagan persecutions. Aware of the varied
unrighteousness of the means employed to gain their proselytes, the end, according
to their morality, justified the means, and murder, with every other violation of
Christianity, was engaged to secure the retention of their unlawful seizures. '^^

The Christianized Jews in Spain, Portugal, and their dominions, had grown so numerous that
they formed a distinct class by themselves ~ the New Christians, or more particularly, Marranos
(damnned). or Mallorca, Chuetas. The latter were the products of a mass conversion effort in
1435 after an anti-semitic uprising on account of an Eastertide blood libel accusation. Not a
single unbaptized Jew was left on the island: but

122

despite the Inquisition, the Chuetas never wholly lost the cognizance of their Jewish descent, and
in 1932 the Mayor of Palma and nine out of the thirty Councillors were Chuetas, besides a
considerable percentage of the population, some of whom celebrate the coming of the Friday
evening services. It was the suspicions of the clergy that many of these New Christians secretly
practised Jewish rites while outwardly conforming to the ordinances of the Church, suspicions in
many cases fully justified, that led them to call in the aid of the Inquisition.

The prime movers in the petition for Inquisitorial interference were those troublers of Israel,
the Dominicans. The doubts and fears of Ferdinand and Isabella, then occupying the throne of
Spain, were overcome, and the Holy Office (a travesty of holiness) was set up at Seville in 1483
with Thomas de Torquemada, it need hardly be said, a Dominican, as Inquisitor-General. The
avowed object of the Inquisition was the purification of the Church from heresy, but particularly

from the pernicious doctrines of Judaism. The methods employed in "smelling ouf the crypto
Jews would have been the wonder and envy of the African witch-doctors could they have been
there to see it. No one was safe from the highest in the land to the lowest. Prelates and princes
trembled for their safety, however orthodox and irreproachable their faith.

Many of the noblest families were degraded by beholding some one of their
members wearing the san-benito, as confessed and pardoned heretics. Though their
chief victims were selected from those who were suspected of secret Judaism, yet
the slightest taint of Judaism in the blood (and among the Aragonese nobility — the
nobility of all Spain — this was by no means rare) was sufficient to excite
suspicion, and, if possible, the vengeance of the Inquisitors.'^^

Don Alfonso, son of the King of Aragon, had married a Christian Jewess, Esther, daughter of
Abiathar ha-Kohen of Sarragossa. Her sister Leah was married to Martin Sanchez, a Marrano.
Secret denunciations were encouraged, and at any time the black-robed officers of the Inquisition
might suddenly apprehend a man and hale him before the dread tribunal.

The results of such an examination may be gathered from the fact that at Seville alone in the
course of a single year, 280 persons were burned alive, 79 were condemned to lifelong
imprisonment and 17,000 received sentences of varying severity. At the burning of Jewish girl,
Philip III could not refrain from shuddering. The Inquisition said that this crime

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could only be atoned for by his blood. The king was forthwith bled, and the blood solemnly
burnt by the executioner.

In some palaces they were not content with burning the living; their insatiable
vengeance warred on the dead. Sepulchres were broken open, and the bodies of
suspected Jews, which had wickedly intruded themselves into consecrated ground
but had long slumbered in peace, and their souls gone to their account, were torn up
and exposed to shame and insult.'"

One of the earliest decrees of the Inquisition provided that no bishop or other priest of Jewish
descent should have a seat in the court. Twenty-seven indications of secret Judaism were drawn
up, including the following: — Expecting the Messiah; Hoping for justification by the Law of
Moses; Keeping the Sabbath by wearing better clothes or not lighting fires on that day;
Observing distinction of meats; Celebrating the Jewish festivals or fasting on Jewish fast-days;
Showing joy on the Fast of Esther; Or bewailing the destruction of Jerusalem on August 9 (ab);
Singing psalms in Hebrew without adding Gloria Patre (the Christian doxology); Performing
any Jewish rites such as circumcision; Retaining Jewish marriage or burial customs; Interring the
dead in Jewish cemeteries.

Judah ben Virga, Rabbi of Seville, typified the state of affairs under the Inquisition by
placing in his window three doves, each bearing a Hebrew inscription. The first bird which was
dead and plucked bore the legend, "These are the detected"; the second which was plucked but
alive carried the statement, "These are the temporisers"; while the third dove alive and fully
fledged was described as "The best of all." By these birds the rabbi illustrated the lot of the New
Christian convicted of Judaism, the Jew who dissembled, and the loyal Jew. For a time indeed
the unbaptized Jew had the best of it, for he could not be charged as a relapsed Christian; but the
Inquisition did not long suffer him to remain secure. At Granada, newly recovered from the

Moors, an edict was issued in 1492 ordering the expulsion of all unbaptized Jews from Spain in
four months time. It was useless for the Jews to protest, or for Rabbi Abrabanel on their behalf to
offer 30,000 ducats for the privilege of remaining in the country, which in spite of persecution
they dearly loved. Thomas de Torquemada held up a crucifix before Ferdinand and Isabella,
crying, "Behold Him whom Judas sold for thirty pieces of silver. Sell ye Him now for a higher
price, and render an account of your bargain before God,"

Look they move! No comrades near but curses;

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Tears gleam in beards of men sore with reverses'
Flowers from fields abandoned, loving nurses
Fondly deck the women's raven hair.

Faded, scentless flowers that shall remind them
Of their precious homes and graves behind them;
Old men clasping Torah-scrolle, unbind them
Lift the parchment flags and silent lead.

Mock not with thy light, O sun, our morrow'
Cease not, cease not, O ye songs of sorrow;
From what land a refuge can we borrow.
Weary, thrust-out, God-forsaken, we?'^^

Yet many did find a refuge, in Africa, in Persia, in the Levant. Large numbers, including
many New Christians, fled to the Netherlands. Da Costa quotes a Jewish author of Amsterdam to
the effect that.

Many of the canons, inquisitors, and bishops on Spain are of Jewish descent; some
are still Jews at heart, though, for the sake of temporal advantages, they feign
themselves to be Christians; some of these at times repent and leave the country as
best they can. In this city of Amsterdam, and in other countries, there arc
Augustines, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits, who have cast off idolatry. In
Spain there are a great many distinguished bishops and monks, whose parents,
brothers and sisters, live in this town and elsewhere, where they can profess
Judaism. '^^

When Christopher Columbus set out on his voyage that led to the discovery of the New
World, there were boatloads of Jewish refugees in the harbor, and there were Jewish Christians
among the members of his own crew. But if the North American continent was to prove a
blessing to thousands of a later generation of Israelites, it was long before this could be true of
South America. So long as there was an Inquisition, so long was the Jewish Christian unsafe in
any Catholic country. As recently as the eighteenth century emissaries of the Holy Office in
Brazil arrested and sent to Lisbon a batch of citizens on the charge of being crypt- Jews. In the
same century in the Portuguese capital auto-da-fcs continued to be held, and still largely with the
same object, the detection and punishment

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of those who secretly practised Jewish rites. On the occasion of an auto-da-fe, it was customary
to preach a sermon to the sufferers in hope of moving them to an eleventh-hour repentance. As a
specimen of the pious sentiments expressed at such a time, the following extracts are taken from
an actual address delivered to a convicted company of New Christians by the Archbishop of
Cranganor at Lisbon, September 6, 1705.

O degraded remnant of Judaism, unhappy fragments of the Synagogue! the last
spoil of Judaea! opprobrium of the Catholics! abhorrence and laughing-stock of your
fellow Jews! it is to you I address myself, ye misguided men!

You are the abhorrence and laughing-stock of the Jews; for your ignorance is such
that you know not how to observe the very Law you profess. You are the
opprobrium of the Catholics; for, being born within the pale of the Church, your
voluntary apostasy has banished you from its bosom. You are the last spoil of
Judaea; for — to our shame ~ your lot is cast here in Portugal to disgrace and
scandalize us in the opinion of the whole world — in our quarter of the globe as
well as in your native East. You are the wretched fragments of the Synagogue; for
all its former greatness is come to an end in your present misery. Finally, you are a
degraded remnant of Judaism, the wretched off-shoots of Israel, who, since the
destruction of your country, have spread throughout Europe to infect whole nations
by your presence ....

How greatly do I pity your degradation. O children of Israel! How many tears of
blood do I shed through compassion for your misfortunes, contemplating what you
are at this day, and what you formerly were. In ancient times the inheritors of that
affection which your continued obstinancy did not deserve; this day the objects of
well-merited anger, which fulfills in you a just retribution: this day the scaffold is
the theater of your contumely; formerly your tabernacles were the boast of your
religion. In ancient times, the waters held you in respect, and no less the flames; this
day fire will feed on you, and your ashes, cast into the sea, will find a tomb in the
waters ....

This day, the anniversary of your feast of Purim, is the day when you are to abjure
and make atonement for your sins in the yellow and scarlet colors of your
penitential dresses —the em-

blems of the fire which will consume your dwelling places, unless these dresses be
changed for another color before being committed to the flames. In former times, on
the day of Atonement for your sins, the scarlet thread that was bound on the horns
of the goat which was to be sacrificed on that day was changed into white, to show
that God had pardoned your sins. In former times your inheritance was the
unalienable property of your families; now the public treasury is your heir ....

Truly. O children dear to my soul, the condition in which you are at the present day
compared with what you were in times past would soften a heart far more obdurate
than mine; for though we may not be of the same blood, we are all your brethren
through the blood of Jesus Christ who redeemed you, and through the holy water of
baptism, wherewith you have been sprinkled ....

126

You yourselves see how you are dispersed all over the world, and scattered
throughout every land; and either from necessity or inclination hold yourselves
apart from one another, so that even if you meet privately to perform the rites of
Judaism, you avoid each other in public, in order to deceive those who charge you
with being Jews. You yourselves bewail your misfortunes, and complain to us
Catholics that your enemies ensnare you, and draw you so suddenly and
indiscriminately into the meshes of our Holy Office, that all of your lineage are
exposed to the same calamity; and although you mutually proclaim your afflictions
to one another, there is no one who has the power to rescue you therefrom ....

The sermon closes with a prayer of which the following are the concluding lines:

You called to them in kindness, but they made an ungrateful return for Your favors.
Seek now to win them to You by chastisement, however little chastisement has
hitherto benefited them. Cause them to acknowledge with perfect sincerity, that in
their present miserable state they have no other remedy than to repent for the time
they have lost in their false expectations, by bewailing their errors, abhorring their
sins, abominating their superstition, and renouncing their contumacy; so that, being
regenerated by the waters of their penitent eyes, they may be born again Your
children, as already by baptism they have become.'*"

127

Wretched Christianized Jews! having to listen to this and much more of hateful piety and
crocodile tears while standing on the brink of a tortured entry into eternity. Even the blood of an
impartial historian may boil at such a horror. Such was the "Misericordia etJustitia" — the
mercy and justice — which the Inquisition proudly emblazoned on its banner, and which it did
not mete out to the New Christians, many of whom were no doubt sincere enough believers in
Christ, yet could not altogether forsake their own people nor the customs that time had hallowed.
And what was there wrong in their standpoint? We may ask today. Yet we know that even now
with all the liberality of faith that has come with more enlightened days, the Jewish Christian
who wished to retain his national and ancestral practices, while utterly loyal to his Savor, is
looked upon askance, and the genuineness of his Christian convictions is doubted. But in the
darker days, the mere fact of Jewish origin was, in itself, often sufficient to call down the jealous
vengeance of an apostate Church. God save us from trial by clergy! The tragedy of it all has been
well set forth by Israel Zangwill in his poem Mo^'e^ and Jesus.

In dream I saw two Jews that met by chance,

One old, stern-eyed, deep-browed, yet garlanded

With living light of love around his head.

The other young, with sweet seraphic glance.

Around went on the Town's satanic dance,

Hunger a-piping while at heart he bled.

Shalom Alechem (peace be with you), mournfully each said.

Nor eyed the other straight, but looked askance.

Sudden from Church out rolled an organ hymn.
From Synagogue a loudly chaunted air,

Each with its Prophet's high acclaim instinct.
Then for the first time met their eyes, swift-linked
In one strange, silent, piteous gaze, and dim
With bitter tears of agonized despair.

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Chapter XVI

In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the reUgions and intellectual life of Europe was
entirely changed by two great movements, the Reformation and the Renaissance, whose
combined effect led eventually to the emancipation of the Jewish people. The change of attitude
towards the Jew was not, however, conspicuously evident at the first. Not until the nineteenth
century did the forces of humanity and enlightenment bring about any real amelioration of the
Jewish lot over any considerable part of Europe. But the flames gradually died down, and the
rack and thumbscrew ceased to be considered as potent arguments in the service of religion.

The condition of the Jewish Christians under Roman Catholic domination has been
sufficiently described; it remains to be shown how they fared under Protestantism. Martin
Luther, the great reformer, in the expectation that the Jews would gladly receive the Christian
faith in the purer form which he advocated, began by extending to them the utmost toleration. In
a book which he published in 1523, under the title Das Jesus em Gerborene Jude Gewesen (That
Jesus was born a Jew) he has a remarkable passage:

Those fools the papists, bishops, sophists, monks, have formerly so dealt with the
Jews, that every good Christian would rather have been a Jew. And if I had been a
Jew, and seen such stupidity and such blockheads reign in the Christian Church, I
would rather be a pig than a Christian. They have treated the Jews as if they were
dogs, not men, and as if they were fit for nothing but to be reviled. They are blood
relations of our Lord; therefore, if we respect flesh and blood, the Jews belong to
Christ more than we. I beg, therefore, my dear Papists, if you become tired of
abusing me as a heretic, that you begin to revile me as a Jew. Therefore, it is my
advice that we should treat them kindly; but now we drive them by force, treating
them deceitfully or ignominiously, saying they must have Christian blood to wash
away the Jewish stain, and I know not what nonsense. Also we prohibit them from
working amongst us, from living and having social intercourse with us, forcing
them, if they would remain with us to be usurers.

129

But like Mohamed, finding that the Jews made hub response to his overtures, Luther changed
his tune. Forgetful of his former counsels, he published twenty-one years later another book
entitled Von den Juden undihren Jugen (Of the Jews and their Lies), in which he exhibits none
of his earlier friendliness. He vents his disappointment in the utterance: "Doubt not, believed in
Christ, that after the Devil you have no more bitter, venomous, violent enemy, than the real Jew.
the Jew in earnest in his belief" He urges his followers:

(1) Burn their synagogues and schools; what will not burn, bury with earth, that
neither stone nor rubbish remain. (2) In like manner, break into and destroy their
houses. (3) Take away all their prayer-books and talmuds, in which are nothing but
godlessness, lies, cursing and swearing. (4) Forbid their rabbis to teach on pain of
life and limb. (5) Forbid them to travel: as they are neither lords nor officials, nor
merchants, they should stay at home. (6) Interdict all usury: we are not their
subjects, but they ours. (7) In the hands of all young Jews and Jewesses should be

placed flails, axes, mattocks, spades, distaffs, spinning-wheels, and let them get
their livelihood in the sweat of their brow, as should all the children of Adam.

Among other things Luther in his Schem Hamphoras (The Ineffable Name) attacked the
Toledoth Jeshu, the Jewish Life of Jesus, ' vluich already for several centuries had been a fruitful
cause of Jewish persecution. True, this ancient work had become more and more libelous and
scandalous as bitterness dictated further fanciful embellishments; but only a very limited number
of Jews set any store by it. By most it was even at this time regarded as a jest, a dubious after-
dinner tale for Christmas eve, and those who retailed its sordid details only faintly associated the
principal character with the Jesus of the Christians.

Calvin, another of the reformers, though he came little into contact with Jews was by no
means tolerant towards them, though less vehement than Luther. Certainly the immediate result
of the Reformation was not to lighten the Jewish burden.

Protestant Germany took up the tale of persecution in the sixteenth century where
Catholic Germany had left off in the fifteenth. The Jews were given the alternative
of baptism and banishment in Berlin, were expelled from Bavaria in 1553, from
Brandenburg in 1573, and in the tragedy of oppression was

130

carried on through the ensuing centuries."^'

Prejudice dies hard, but on the whole it may be said that the purer faith of the Protestants and
their abstention from the more violent and cruel forms of anti-semitism were more conducive to
awakening a spirit of inquiry in Jewish minds than had been possible under Roman Catholicism.
Since the sixteenth century that spirit of inquiry has increased in direct proportion to the
toleration and love shown by the Christian to the Jew. Little by little, as the full rights of
citizenship have been accorded him, and his equality in all that pertains to human intercourse
recognized, his interest in the one who has effected this transformation has awakened. The moral
is not far to seek. A Messiah "who walketh about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may
devour" could not be the promised Savior of the Scriptures. The Messiah for whom Israel has
besought the Heavenly Fattier with anxious tears "shall not hurt or destroy." The Man of
Sorrows had an appeal to the People of Sorrows infinitely greater than the Christ of the
Inquisition. The lesson had to be learned in the bitter experiences of exile and martyrdom, but it
had not been in vain; for the Jew of more enlightened times could clasp the wounded hands, in
tearful understanding if not yet in sincere repentance.

The Renaissance also had played its part in opening the way for Jewish acceptance of Christ.
The ecclesiasticism which had kept the thought of Europe flowing in fixed channels had become
more flexible and assimilative. It is unpleasant to have to record that a Jewish convert to
Christianity was one of those who attempted to stay the march of process. Johann Phefferkorn
(1469-c. 1521) will always be remembered as the tool of the Dominicans in their last bid for
power in Germany. Jacob van Hoogstraatcn, Prior of the Order in Cologne, where Phefferkorn
was baptized in 1505, used him in attacks against the Jews, and particularly against their
literature deemed inimical to Christianity. The Emperor Maximilian was induced to publish an
edict of confiscation and destruction, and later to appoint of inquiry to consider the accusations
of Phefferkorn. Among those who sat on this commission were Victor of Carben, a more

enlightened Jewish Christian, Hoogstraaten and Johann Reuchlin. Reuchlin, the great Humanist,
dared to report in favor of the Jews and the edict was suspended. Pfefferkorn was furious. Victor
of Carbcn retired from pubUc life acknowledging his

131

dislike for religious controversy.

Then began a fierce intellectual battle with Pfefferkorn and Reuchlin as the protagonists,
which involved the most learned scholars of Europe. Tracts and counter-tracts were heatedly
composed, Der Aungenspiegel, Der Augenspiegel. Der Brandspiegel, etc. The Dominicans
eventually gained a barren victory in the papal condemnation of Reuchlin. But the better sense of
thinking men had been awakened, and the Humanists had really won the day. The outcome of the
struggle was a new interest on the part of Gentile scholars in the Hebrew language and literature.
The accumulated wisdom of Israel began to be laid under contribution to enrich the world. A
large part of the Jewish literature of this period was devoted to Kabbalistic lore, and this was
found specially attractive. Reuchlin himself was enchanted with the occult and philosophical
speculations of this system, and in his wake followed Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Paracelsus,
and Robert Fludd. while on the expository and linguistic side of Hebrew learning such men as
the elder Buxtorf did yeoman service. The new interest in Hebrew even produced renderings of
the Gospel into the sacred tongue by Sebastian Munster.

But if Jewish Christianity seemed to darken in the light with such a blustering fanatic as
Pfefferkorn, it made ample compensation with many another convert who helped in
disseminating Hebrew literature and learning. Mention may be made of a few representative
personalities.

Three Jewish Christians were employed by Cardinal Ximenes to assist him in preparing his
famous Complutensian Polyglot Bible (1514-1517). Their names are Paul Nunez Corones,
Alfonso de Zamora and Alfonso d' Alcala. The two former were both professors at the University
of Salamanca. Dominico Irosolimitano, a Rabbi of Safed, became famed as a doctor and was
summoned by the Sultan to be court physician at Constantinople. After embracing Christianity
he taught Hebrew at Rome.

Giovanni Baptista Jonas, also a Palestinian from Safed (1588-1668), came to Europe and
was, for a time, assistant rabbi in Hamburg. He was converted in Poland in 1625. Thereafter he
went to Italy and was appointed Professor at the University of Pisa, and later one of the Vatican
librarians. He made a Hebrew translation of the Gospels and compiled a Begrea-Chaldee lexicon:
he is noted for many other works.

Two grandsons of the famous Hebrew grammarian, Elias Levita. became Christians, and
were employed in expurgating and editing Jewish

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books.

Paul Riccio, a German Jewish Christian of the first half of the sixteenth century, became
Professor of Philosophy in the University of Pavia, subsequently he was physician to Maximilian
I. He was a friend of Erasmus, and held a controversy with Eck on astronomical subjects. He
sought the spiritual welfare of his Jewish brethren, and imparted to Christians much information
about Jewish literature. His best known book is his De Posta Lucis R. Josephi Gecatilia

(Augsburg 1616), which is a free translation of a part of the Kabbalistic work Sha 'are Orah by
Joseph Gekatila. Jerome Riccio, Paul's son, sent a copy of the work to Reuchlin, who utilized it
in the composition of his De Are Cabballistica. Riccio relates that he was ordered to prepare a
Latin translation of the Talmud. All that has come down of it are the translations of the tractates
of Berechoth, Sanhedrin, and Makkoth (Augsburg 1519), which are the earliest Latin renderings
of the Mishnah known to bibliographers.'^^ Riccio also wrote an introduction to the Kabbalah
which went through four editions.

Johannes Isaac Levita Germanus, baptized in 1546, was for a time Professor of Hebrew in
London and subsequently in Cologne.

John Immanuel Tremellius (1510-1580) waseducated at the University of Padua, and became
a Christian through the influence of Cardinal Pole. The following year he gave his allegiance to
Protesantism, and settled down as a Hebrew teacher at Strasburg. Later, as a refugee from the
religious wars in Germany, he came to England and found asylum with Archbishop Cranmer at
Lambeth Palace. In 1549 he became Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge University.
When Queen Mary came to the throne he returned to Germany, where for a time he was
Professor of Old Testament at Heidelberg. Finally he removed to the College of Sedan, where he
remained until his death. He made a Latin translation of the Bible from Hebrew and Syriac,
which ran into several editions. He also translated into Hebrew Calvin's Catechism (Paris, 1551),
and wrote a Syriac and Chaldee grammar (Paris. 1569).

An interesting personality is Mark Raphael, an Italian Jewish Christian of the first half of the
sixteenth century. Henry VIII of England sought his help in his matrimonial difficulties, and he
was asked to advise on the legality of Henry's levirate marriage to Queen Catharine according to
Jewish Law. He came to England in January, 1551. He upheld the legality of the marriage, but
suggested that there would be no wrong in the

133

king taking a second wife during tile lifetime of the first. Naturally, such advice was rejected; of
[so?] Raphael changed his view and now contended that the object of a levirate marriage was to
continue the deceased brother's line, and as no male heir had resulted from the union, the king
could not have had this intention, and the marriage was therefore invalid. His opinion was
included with others in the memorial to Parliament, and Raphael was suitably rewarded by a
grateful monarch.

The record of sixteenth-century Jewish Christians of note would be incomplete without some
account of Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, Physician to Queen Elizabeth, and believed by Sir Sidney Lee to
be the original of Shakespeare's Shylock. A very full and able account of him has been written
by R. Ackerman,'^^ and because of the important part he played in the affairs of his day, his
story, as well for its dramatic quality, is worthy of some detailed consideration.

Lopez hailed from Portugal, and settled in England in 1559, most likely as a refugee from the
Inquisition. He is described in the census of foreigners living in England in 1511 as "Dr. Lopus,
a portingale, householder, denizen, who came into this realm about twelve years past to get his
living by physike." His wife Sarah and a brother Lewis are also mentioned. The date of his
conversion to Christianity is unknown. He speedily rose to eminence in his profession and was
elected a member of the College of Physicians; he was also the first man to hold the appointment
of house physician at St Bartholomew's hospital. A colleague, William Clowes, praised him as

one who "showed himself to be both careful and very skilful, not only in his counsel in dieting,
purging and bleeding, but also for his direction of Arceus' apozema." His fame and practice
grew rapidly. In 1571 he attended Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen's Secretary; in 1575 his
name appears near the head of the list of the chief London doctors published by Stowe. Ten years
later he was a physician to the Earl of Leicester; then he was attached to the household of the
Earl of Essex; and finally in 1586 he was made physician to Queen Elizabeth, who in 1589
granted him the valuable monopoly of importing seed and sumach into England.

Through his lucrative practice Lopez rapidly amassed a fortune. In 1593 he had a house in
Holborn gifted to him by a grateful patient. He had two daughters living at home and a son at
Winchester. Naturally there were many to envy him his good fortune, especially as he was a Jew.
"He is none of the learnedest or expertest physicians in the

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court?" wrote Gabriel Harvey, "but one that maketh a great account of himself as the best, and
by a kind of Jewish practice as well with ye queen herself as with sum of ye greatest Lords and
Ladyes."

But life at court quickly involved the worthy doctor in the prevailing intrigues and proved his
undoing. Being fluent in the Portuguese and Spanish tongues, his services as an interpreter were
in constant requisition at a time when Essex had espoused the cause of Don Antonio, pretender
to the throne of Portugal, against Philip II of Spain. After an abortive expedition, however, which
Elizabeth had unwillingly sent to Lisbon, Don Antonio's cause lost favor and Essex remained as
practically his only distinguished supporter. Lopez had fallen out with Don Antonio, and then for
the worse quarrelled with Essex, who thereafter set himself to compass his downfall. The doctor
unwisely allowed himself to be drawn into the opposite camp and became associated with the
agents of Philip. He was by no means partial to Spain, as is evidenced by the fact that he offered
his services to Walsingham, who employed him to spy on the Spanish court. In this dangerous
position he was taking money from Philip and obtaining his goodwill, while actually serving the
interests of England. Essex saw in this situation the opportunity which he required, and sought
by every means to obtain proof that Lopez was really working for Spain. Estban Ferreira, a
former servant to Don Antonio, who resided with Lopez, was arrested at Essex's instigation, and
later Lopez's house was searched, but Sir Robert Cecil related to the Queen "that there was no
matter of malice, for in the poor man's house were found no kind of writs of intelligences of
which he was accused, or otherwise, that hold might be taken of him." Dr. Lopez, meanwhile,
had been arrested and was confined in Essex's house, with Ferreira and others. By tormenting
these men with question, Essex at length forced them into a false confession of a conspiracy
against the Queen in which Dr. Lopez, in the pay of Spain, was to have brought about her death
by poison.

Essex was triumphant, and unfortunately Walsingham, who could have cleared Lopez of the
preposterous charge, was dead. Lopez was brought to trial at the Guilhall on February 28, 1594.
Essex presided and Coke, the Solicitor-General, prosecuted. The result was inevitable, in spite of
the prisoner's steadfast plea of innocence. Coke exclaimed against him as "this perjured and
murdering traitor and Jewish doctor," and he was condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered
at Tyburn. Elizabeth still seems to have believed him innocent, anti delayed three months before

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100

signing the death warrant.

The last scene was enacted with all the barbaric cruelty of the time. The wretched doctor,
when the shouts of the huge crowd that had collected were silenced for a moment, was heard to
cry out again his innocence and that he loved the Queen as well as he loved Jesus Christ, "which
expression," Camden writes, "coming from a Jew, put the spectators into a pleasant fit of
laughter."

Though many Jewish Christians might rise to eminence in their chosen professions, the
majority remained at the opposite end of the social scale. In vain for Luther to urge that they be
made to till and sow; tenure of land was forbidden them, and often no alternative but to drift into
beggary, and join the ragged crew of gypsies, mendicants, and vagabonds, who swarmed over
Europe at this period. The sterling qualities of their race degraded by centuries of persecution
and ill-usage into low cunning and plausibility, and their native wit further sharpened by hunger,
they acquired an aptitude in wheedling a precarious livelihood out of a simple and superstitious
peasantry. An English tract published in 1625 contains the observation: "A store of Jews we have
in England, a few in Court; many in the city, more in the Country." The tract is significantly
entitled The Wandering Jew Telling Fortunes to Englishmen. From this statement it will be
remarked that, contrary to modern conditions, the majority of the Jews were located in the
country and not in the towns, where they subsisted by fortune-telling, quackery, peddling and
begging: Most of these Jews were at least nominally Christian.

In Germany, about 1509, there was published a curious work XhtTibre Vagatorumn (Book of
Vagabonds),"^'* a kind of who's who of Begging Orders, to the 1528 edition of which Luther
contributed a Preface. One or two passages are worth quoting:

The twenty-third chapter is about the Veranerins. These are women who say they
are baptized Jewesses and have turned Christians, and can tell people whether their
fathers or mothers are in hell or not, and beg gowns and dresses and other things,
and have also false letters and seals.

Item, beware of the peddlers who seek thee at home, for thou wilt buy nothing good
of them, be it silver, haberdashery, spicery, or any other wares. Beware, likewise, of
the doctors who travel

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up and down the country, and offer theriack and roots, and make much ado about
themselves, and especially some blind doctors. One called Hans of Strasburg, has
been a Jew, and was christened at Strasburg at Whitsuntide; years ago his eyes were
bored out at Worms, but he is now a physician, and tells fortunes, and travels from
place to place, arid cheats and defrauds everybody. How? I need not say, I could tell
welt enough.

At the end of this fascinating and revealing little volume there is a Vocabulary of sixteenth-
century beggar's slang, of which Luther says in this Preface: "Truly, such Beggars' Cant has
come from the Jews, for many Hebrew words occur in the Vocabulary, as any one who
understand that language may perceive. "'^Unstances given are the following:

Adone, God — Hebrew, Adonai , the Lord

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Acheln,

to eat

— Hebrew, Akal

Betzam,

an egg

— Hebrew, Beytzah

Boss or Bett,

a house

— Hebrew, Beth

Bosshart,

meat

— Hebrew, Basar

Bosshart-Vetzer, a butcher

Bsajfor,

a letter, a

cipher — Hebrew. Sepher

Galle,

a parson

— Hebrew, Kahal , a priest

Gatzam,

a child

— Hebrew, Gatam, puny

Gfare,

a village

Hebrew, K'far

Joham,

wine

— Hebrew, Yahyin

Lehem,

bread

— Hebrew, Lehem

Schochern,

to drink

— Hebrew, Schachar

Sefel,

din

— Hebrew, Shafar, mean

The subject is undoubtedly worthy of a special monograph, and offers an interesting sidelight
on the Christianized Jew in contemporary society.

102

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Chapter XVII

The seventeenth century passed and the opening decades of the eighteenth without any
notable name being added to the roll of eminent Jewish Christians, though voluntary
conversions, real and assumed, were numerous both to Catholicism, Protestantism, and to the
Orthodox Greek Church. Nevertheless, for historic Jewish Christianity, this period was one of
the most remarkable since the triumph of the Gentile Church in the fourth century. The tide
which had carried Christianity steadily further away from the Jewish apostolic faith was now at
its turn, and thousands not of the Hebrew race began to turn their eyes Zionwards, literally and
spiritually.

Despite intolerance, which again and again reared its jagged barriers against the waves which
swept in towards the Palestinian shores, the process could not be stemmed. In Poland and
Transylvania the teaching of Fausto Sozzini (Socinus) had gained a footing for an energetic
antitrinitarianism, which initiated the Unitarian movement, granting to Jesus rather the courtesy
title of God than actual Deity, and sublimating the personality of the Holy Spirit into a spiritual
influence. In Britain, the publication of the Authorized Version of the Bible became the
inspiration of Puritanism and Biblical speech and nomenclature so permeated the national life
that it seemed as if the true People of the Book were the inhabitants of the islands. In Holland the
Reformation Church was no less active in promoting an almost Jewish domestic life and faith.
Indeed, at one and the same time Jewish ideas were deeply influencing the two great Christian
groups, Kabbalism among the Catholics and Propheticism among the Protestants. The Old
Testament took a new hold on the religious consciousness. Men began to find in the Law of
Moses the divinely appointed rule of conduct, and to study the Prophets for Light on the last
days. Jew and Christian drew nearer together than they had done for many centuries past.

The whole of Christendom was strangely unquiet, filled with Messianic expectations and
forebodings of coming Judgment. A.D. 1666 was set as the crucial apocalyptic year, and there
were no lack of pamphlets predicting the time of the end. The night skies were searched for signs
and portents, and stern pastors painted lurid pictures of the last days for their trembling flocks.
The Jews themselves impressed by the attitude of their

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Christian neighbors, and by their own mystical speculations, began to lift their heads in
expectation. David Reubeni, who had arrived in Europe a century before with talk of a Jewish
kingdom in the East, had not been forgotten. Antonio de Montesinos was claiming that the
North- American Indians were the lost Ten Tribes. Manasseh ben Israel was petitioning of the
settlement of the Jews in England and Sweden on the ground that their restoration could not take
place until they were completely dispersed throughout every land.

As the apocalyptic year drew near, the tension increased among Jews and Christians. The
national conversion of the Jewish people no longer appeared as a dim and distant prospect, still
less as an unattainable goal. The Dutch led the way in founding a Jewish mission. In Germany.
Esdras Edzard constituted himself apostle to the Jews, and was instrumental during his long life
in leading more Jews to Christ than any other single person. He was followed by Professor John
Henry Callenberg at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and later in 1728 the famous

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Callenberg Institutum Judaicum was founded. Reineck in 1713 declared. "The general topic of
conversation and discussion at the present day is about the conversion of the Jews." There is no
question that Cromwell was influenced in favor of Manasseh ben Israel's petition for the
readmission of the Jews to England by hopes of their conversion. Addressing an assemblage of
clergy and merchants in long gallery at Whitehall, he said: "Was it not, then, our duty in
particular to encourage them to settle where they could be taught the truth, and not to exclude
them from the light, and leave them among false teachers, papists, and idolaters?" There were
rumors that the Jews had offered the Protector half-a-million pounds for St. Paul's Cathedral to
become their synagogue, and one writer suggested solving the Irish problem by making that
country over to them.

Then in distant Smyrna a Messiah appeared — Shabbathai Zevi. Not since Bar-Kochba had
any claimant to the throne of David found such a following. Yet in personality, the two were
poles asunder. Bar-Kochba was a warrior, pure and simple. Shabbathai Zevi was a mystic, a
Kabbalistic visionary. Yet each was suited to the Jewish temperament of his day. Shabbathai,
born on the fateful 9th of Ab, did not avow himself openly as the Messiah until he was forty
years of age, and it would seem that he was rather compelled to the declaration by the
enthusiasm of his disciples. Yet some years before he had dared to pronounce the

139

Ineffable Name of God, which might be interpreted as an indication of his belief that he was
the promised deliverer. So enwrapped was he in an atmosphere of exalted mysticism, however,
that this incident cannot be urged as proof that he made any claim on his own behalf before he
was driven to it. But with Nathan of Gaza as his energetic prophet, he did finally proclaim
himself, and the tidings spread swiftly to the West. Jewish merchants in Amsterdam began to
close their businesses preparatory to returning to the Land of Israel. Whole communities of Jews
got ready to depart. Prayers for "our Lord and King Shabbathai Zevi" were read in orthodox
synagogues. Men and women and even children fell into prophetic ecstasies. And although many
rabbis doubted and opposed the movement the Jewish people would not be baulked of their
triumph, and rejoiced that the long night of sorrow was nearly ended. Christians began to wonder
what these happenings could portend. Was Shabbathai Zevi the real Christ? Was he the
Antichrist? The wildest rumors gained currency. To the north of Scotland a ship had been sighted
with sails blazoned with the words, "The Twelve Tribes of Israel," manned with sailors who
spoke only the Hebrew tongue. On the heels of fancy followed terrible reality. 1665 was the
Plague Year, and in 1666 came the great fire of London.

How shocking to the Jews was the tragic disappointment when Shabbathai, pressed to fulfill
the prediction that he should take the crown from the head of the Turkish Sultan, arrived at
Constantinople and was first imprisoned and later on threat of death turned Mussulman. Long
afterwards the Jewish communities were still rent and torn by controversy because some yet
clung to the vain hope that in an unexplained miraculous manner their hero would be restored to
them and fulfill his destiny. While in the Near East, the Donmeh sect still survives, whose
members practise a faith half Muslim half Jewish, looking for the return of their Messiah, a pale
reflection of what Nazarenism was in the early Christian centuries.

As had happened on similar occasion in the past the reaction brought about by the failure of a
Messianic claimant drove numbers of Jews into the Church. It also led to the formation of many

104

borderline sects, particularly in eastern Europe, which on the one hand discarded much of
rabbinical dogma and ceremonial; and on the other hand flirted with

140

Christianity in their mystical Messianism. Chief among these new groups were the
Frankists. Jacob Frank was born in Poldolia about 1726, the son of one who was himself
expelled form the local Jewish community for being a Shebs (follower of Shabbathai
Zevi). As a merchant he spent much of his early life in Salonika and Smyrna, where the
Shabbathaian influence was still very strong. About 1755 Frank returned to Poldolia and
gathered about him a body of local sectaries to whom he began to proclaim the
revelations he had received from the Shebs-messianists. In place of the Talmud, the sect
reverenced the Kabbalistic Zohar, and styled themselves Zoharists. In their secret
gatherings, the conditions prevailing in the primitive Corinthian Church were repeated,
where religious exaltation became degraded by licentiousness; with the result that the
Frankists were put under a severe ban by the scandalized rabbis, and every effort was
made to expel them from the Synagogue.

The persecuted Frankists sought protection from the Bishop of Kamenets-Podolsk on the
ground of their rejection of Talmud, and that the Zohar which was their authority recognized the
doctrine of a divine Trinity of which the Messiah was a member. They did not explain that for
them the Messiah was Shabbathai Zevi. The protection was granted, and as long as the bishop
lived the sect remained fairly secure. According to Da Costa, the Frankist tenets were as follows:

"That no religion can possibly exist without the knowledge of God: all other religion
is an outward service or works: piety and the love of God are the effects of a
profound acquaintance with His nature, and this must be sought in the study of His
law, where it is found as within a kernel, from which it must be deduced by means of
tradition: the doctrine of Moses and the Prophets has an inward meaning far deeper
than that of the letter, without which it is only a dead letter, and the source of errors
and mistakes, the cause of the dangerous doctrines of the Talmud; according to the
pure doctrine of the Word of God, there is only one God, the Creator and Preserver of
all things, but revealed in three persons; God has appeared from the beginning upon
earth in human form, but after the entrance of sin. He laid aside this form, and has
since taken it again of the expiation of sin. As for Jerusalem, it will never be rebuilt,
and a terrestrial Messiah is not to be expected. '^*^

In 1759 Frank entered on a new stage in his career. He claimed that his revelations showed the
necessity for himself and his followers to adopt the

141

Christian faith as part of the process of realizing the world Messianic religion. Accordingly, he
and some five hundred members of the sect were received into the Church by baptism. Frank, to
whom Augustus III stood godfather, received the baptismal name of Joseph. Later, however,
when it was perceived that the Frankists were as heretical as Christians as they had formerly
been as Jews, proceedings were taken against them, and Frank himself was arrested and confined
in a monastery for thirteen years. Eventually he was released through the advance of the Russian
armies, and after an adventurous career died at Offenback in 1791. His daughter, who survived
him, carried on the leadership of the sect until 1816, when the members were scattered and

105

merged with the Catholic Church.

The movement is noteworthy for the attempt to combine mystical Judaism with Christianity.
The mystics of all religions have a certain kinship which enables them to draw near to one
another and sink doctrinal differences in a common supermundane language and conception, and
Jewish mysticism has by far the closest ties with mystical Christianity. As a result, since the
Frankist movement, many Jewish converts have come from the ranks of the Chassidim of Poland
and Galicia. The tendency of this type of Jewish Christian, naturally, is away from realistic
Nonconformity and towards the High Church and Roman Church which best satisfy their
aspirations. At the present day a revival of Chassidic Christianity, though in an orthodox form,
has been attempted by Dr. Paul Levertoff, who characteristically has assisted in translating the
Zohar into English. Undoubtedly there is a place in the Christian Church for the Jewish mystic,
and his contribution can be a valuable one even if it must be limited to the few who have a
capacity for such a transcendental faith.

It has already been noted to what an unusual extent the Christians of this period were
concerned with the Jewish problem. Among the books which were written, and which still have
some reputation, not always of a savory character, were Wagenseil's Telalgnea Satance,
Eisenmenger' s Entdecktes Judenthum, Lightfoot's Horce Hebraicce et Talmudicce, a commentary
on the Gospels and some of the Epistles from Jewish sources, Surenhuysius' Mishna, Bartlocci's
Bibliotheca Magna Rabbinica, and Basnage' s L 'Histoire et la Religion des Juifs Depuis Jesus
Christ Jusqu 'a

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Present.

What is of particular importance from the point of view of this history is that this scholarly
activity in the domain of Hebrew leaming was directly preparing the way of the revival of
organized Jewish Christianity. Representative of the more enlightened attitude is the statement of
Surenhuysius, quoted with approval by Canon Danby.'*^^

He who desires to be a good and worthy disciple of Christ must either first become
a Jew, or first learn thoroughly the language and culture of the Jews, and become
Moses' disciple before he joins the Apostles, in order that he may be able through
Moses and the Prophets to convince men that Jesus is the Messiah.

Unwelcome as conversionist attention was to the Jew, he was quickly responsive to a
reasonable Christian approach which respected the merits of Jewish teaching. In return he could
give a blessing to the faith which has cursed him for so many centuries. Thus Jacob Emden, the
famous Jewish controversialist of the eighteenth century, could write:

Christianity has been given as part of the Jewish religion by Apostles to the Gentile
world: and its Founder has even made the moral laws stricter than are those
contained in the Mosaic law. There are, accordingly, many Christians of high
qualities and excellent morals who keep from hatred and do harm to none, even to
their enemies. Would that Christians would all live in conformity with their
precepts! They are not enjoined, like the Israelites, to observe the laws of Moses:
nor do they sin if they associate other beings with God in worshipping a trinitarian
Godhead. They will receive reward from God for having propagated a belief in

106

Him among nations that never heard His name: for "He looks into the heart." Yea,
many Christians have even gone forth to the rescue of Jews and their hterature.'***

Our highest tribute must be reserved for a Gentile author often falsely described as a
freethinker when he should have been described as an advanced thinker, for he was fully two
hundred years before his time. It was John Toland, who, in his Nazarenus published in the
second decade of the eighteenth century, first perceived and set forth the fundamental difference
in the constitution of Jewish and Gentile Christianity. If his wise words had received the
attention that was their due, how much of the suffering would have been spared to hundreds of
Jewish Christians cut off form their racial heritage by the Church's insistence that by acceptance
of

143

Christ they had ceased in any sense to be Jews. What agonies of soul, what broken hearts, have
resulted from the Gentile fear of Judaising! How many Jewish homes have mourned a lost son or
daughter, because it was believed on Christian authority that their converted child had become a
goy\ Thorny has been the path of the Jewish Christian who desired to remain loyal to his people
and to their God-given institutions. Romanism tortured his body, but Protestantism tortured his
soul. No wonder that there have been backsliders, while such a perversion of truth could stand
for Christian doctrine, and Jewish souls were hunted to death to the tune of "Free from the Law,
O happy condition!"

Considerations of space unfortunately prevent any detailed quotation of Toland' s closely
reasoned arguments, but at least an extract from the Preface to his work must be given as a
memorial of a Christian man of vision and of faith.

From the history of the Nazarenes. and more particular from the evident words of
Scripture, I infer in this discourse a distinction of two sorts of Christians, viz. those
from among the Jews, and those from among the Gentiles: not only that in fact
there was such a distinction (which nobody denies) but likewise that of right it
ought to have been so (which everybody denies) and that it was so designed in the
Original Plan of Christianity. I mean that the Jews, though associating with the
converted Gentiles, and acknowledging them for brethren, were still to observe
their own Law throughout all generations; and that the Gentiles, who became so far
Jews as to acknowledge One God, were not however, to observe the Jewish Law:
but that both of them were to be forever after united into one body or fellowship,
and in that part of Christianity particularly, which, better than all the preparative
purgations of the Philosophers, requires the sanctification of the spirit, or the
renovation of the inward man; and wherein alone the Jew and the Gentile, the
Civilized and the Barbarian, the Freeman and the Bondslave, are all one in Christ,
however otherwise differing in their circumstances. In comparison of the New
Creature, Circumcision and Uncircumcision are as nothing: which yet no more
takes away the distinction of the sexes; since it is likewise said in the same sense,
and in the same place, that in Christ there is neither Male or Female. This
fellowship in Piety and Virtue is the Mystery that Paul rightly

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107

says was hid from all other ages, till the manifestation of it by Jesus; and this union
without uniformity, between Jew and Gentile, is the admirable Economy of the
Gospel. Now, this Gospel consists not in words but in virtue; tis inward and
spiritual, abstracted from all formal and outward performances: for the most exact
observation of externals, may be without one grain of religion. All this is
mechanically done by the help of a little book-craft, whereas true religion is inward
life and spirit. So that something else besides the Legal Ordinances, most of them
political, was necessary to render a Jew religious: even that Faith, which is an
internal participation of the divine nature, irradiating the soul; and externally
appearing in beneficence, justice, sanctity, and those other virtues by which we
resemble God, who is himself all Goodness. But the Jews generally mistook the
means for the end: as other, who better understood the end, would not only
absurdly take away the names: but even those other civil and national rites which
were to continue always in the Jewish Republic (as I particularly prove) thus
confounding political with religious performances. From this doctrine it follows (tis
true) that Jesus did not take away or cancel the Jewish Law, in any sense
whatsoever. Sacrifices only excepted; but neither does this affect any of the Gentile
Christians now in the world, who have nothing at all to do with that Law. It follows
indeed that the Jews, whether becoming Christians or not, are forever bound to the
Law of Moses, as now limited; and he that thinks that they were absolved from the
observation of it by Jesus, or that 'tis a fault in them still to adhere to it, does err,
not knowing the Scriptures; as did most of the converts from the Gentiles, who
gave their bare names to Christ, but reserved their Idolatrous hearts for their native
superstitions. These did almost wholly subvert the True Christianity, which in the
following Treatise I vindicate; drawing it out from under the rubbish of their
endless division, and clearing it from the almost impenetrable mists of their
sophistry. So inveterate was their hatred of the Jews (though indebted to them for
the Gospel) that their observing of any thing, however reasonable or necessary, was
a sufficient motive for these Gentile converts to reject it .... I do here teach a very
different doctrine.

more consonant (I am persuaded) to the mind of Christ and his Apostles, and is
more agreeable to the Law of nature and the dictates of Humanity. '"^^

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108

146

Chapter XVIII

The intention of this history clearly excludes any detailed account of Christian Missions
to Jews, and a voluminous literature already exists on the subject published by the various
societies themselves and by individuals who were closely connected with their activities. It must
be clearly recognized, however, that the Missions to the Jews, mainly founded in the nineteenth
century, paved the way directly for the reconstitution of Jewish Christianity as an organic
spiritual community, not only because their high-souled efforts won thousands of Jews for Christ
and so provided the living materials for such a reconstitution, but because some of them
sponsored and assisted the first hesitant steps of Jewish Christians to unite with one another in a
corporate existence. The debt of Jewish Christianity to the modern Protestant missions is indeed
an overwhelming one, and can only be repaid by the utmost endeavor to realize in function the
vision of so many saintly Gentile Christians of a national Jewish witness for Jesus the Messiah
that in the dark hour of almost universal unbelief would hold aloft the torch of faith, and fulfill
the historic mission of Israel to the world by showing forth the pattern of a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.

In the contemplation of such a glorious prospect it is possible to lose sight of, and even to
forget, the fevers and stresses which have marked the journey to the mount of vision, the
bitternesses of brethren and the opposition of foes. What we may remember with gratitude is,
that despite temporary setbacks due to lack of understanding, jealousies, and a rigid adherence to
sectional formulas, there was a steady striving and progress towards the goal. It could not be
expected of the Jewish people that they would in any way countenance either the objector
methods of the Christian propaganda, which to them, and not without reason, represented a
disruptive force aiming at the piece-meal destruction of their racial integrity. We say, not without
reason, because the "All one in Chrisf partisans in the Church continued to use the beautiful
Pauline conception as an axe to sever the Jewish Christian wholly and completely from his
former co-rcligionists.

The Jewish Christians themselves, especially the missionaries, partly inspired by zeal for
their new faith and partly by fear that their sincerity would be called in question, as a rule have
been outspoken in denunciations of Judaism, so that they have become strangers to their brethren
and have

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ceased to be associated with any Jewish interests, even of a non-religious character. When not
disowned through Jewish prejudice they have disowned themselves through Christian prejudice.

The nearer we approach to our own times the more difficult it becomes to view events
and individuals in a true historic perspective. It is not only that we have ample records to contrast
with the scanty relics of past ages, or that a few names have swelled to thousands, but that the
task of deciding who and what events are really significant is complicated by actual or supposed
personal bias. If our history had been one of Jewish Christians and not of Jewish Christianity,
there would be no difficulty, as all that would be required would be a rewriting of expansion of
Bernstein's Some Jewish Witnesses for Christ. But our aim being what it is, a reference to the
majority of very estimable Jewish converts of the nineteenth century, many of whom attained to

109

great distinction for piety or learning, would be entirely out of place: they belong to the Jewish
Christian roll of honor, and their names, no doubt, are written in heaven, but they have
contributed nothing to the Jewish Christian movement. The names that will live in Jewish
Christian history will be those of men who were not always highly thought of by their own
generation and who were frequently distressed and discouraged, but who by their steadfast
adherence to their racial obligations as Jews have sought to restore what Toland realized was the
Original Plan of Christianity.

The clarion call to a new conception of Christian duty to the Jew was sounded by
Callenbcrg in 1732. "Will God save all mankind. He does not exclude the Jews." The Church
was awakening to the Gentile need of Christ in far off lands, but the Apostolic order "To the Jew
first," had so far touched few Christian consciences. Muller' s The Light at Eventide, and
Goldney's £/»z.s'^/e to the Jews, "wheresoever scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth,"
were exceptional tracts. It had to wait for Jewish Christians to plead the cause of their brethren
before any real active work was started. Joseph Samuel Frey (1711-1 837) and Ridley Herschell
(1807-1864) were the inspirers of the London Society and the British Society, respectively, for
Promoting Christianity among the Jews. Many other societies were subsequently formed, and by
the end of the nineteenth century there were nearly a hundred agencies working among the Jews
in different parts of the world. The results of their work is shown by the fact

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that at least a quarter of a million Jews were won for Christ during this century. '^° Nor was their
quality negligible. Twenty names only may be given here as representative. '''

Karl Paul Caspari (1814-1892), professor of theology at Christiania.

Paulus Cassel (1821-1892), German writer and preacher.

Isaac Da Costa (1789-1860), Dutch historian.

Benjamin Disraeli, Lord Beaconsfield (1804-1881), British statesman and writer.

George Ebers (b. 1837). German Egyptologist.

Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889), English theologian and writer.

Emin Pasha (1840-1892), African explorer.

Ferdinand Christian Ewald (1801-1874), German divine.

Christian David Ginsburg (it 1821), British theologian.

Bishop Isaac Hellmuth (1820-1901), Canadian divine.

Sir William Herschel (1738-1822), English astronomer.

Moses Margoliouth (1818-1881), Jewish historian.

Karl Marx (1818-1883), German sociaUst.

Felix Mendel ssohn-Bartholdy (1809-1847), German composer.

Johann August Wilhelm Neander (1789-1850), professor of ecclesiastical history,

Berlin.

Sir Francis Cohen Palgrave (1788-1861), historian.

Bishop Samuel Isaac Johseph Schereschewsky (1831-1906), sinologist and divine.

Henry A. Stern (1820-1885), missionary and traveller.

Joseph Wolff (1795-1862), missionary and traveller.

Sir Moses Ximenes (b. 1762), English high sheriff.

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Jewish Christianity does not boast of numbers, and it is only right to add that De le Roi's
figures include many thousands of Jews who were converts of expediency, especially in
Germany, where the professing Jew had little chance of advancement. It cannot be said,
however, that Jewish emancipation, which took place in so many countries during the nineteenth
century, made the Jew less willing to listen to the Gospel message. Rather is it striking that when
all compulsion and necessity for Christian baptism was removed there was an increase and not a
diminution of conversions. The spirit that had steadily resisted threats and persecutions was
ready to surrender to love.

149

One of the most significant of Christian missionary enterprises to the Jews inaugurated
during the nineteenth century was the Hebrew Christian Testimony to Israel founded in 1893 by
David Baron and C.A. Schonberger in the East End of London. These two saintly men were
anxious to impress the Jews with the fact that they did not represent any particular Church or sect
or party, but that Jewish Christians as such were bearing testimony that they had found in Jesus
of Nazareth their Messiah and Savior. Their aim was not to convert Jews to a creed, but to bring
as many as possible into living relationship with God, in Christ, and to testify to both Jews and
Gentile Christians that Christ and Israel are inseparable; that Christ is still to be "the King of the
Jews," and that the Jewish nation is in a peculiar sense "His own." David Baron once stated:

What we continually press upon the Jews is that we believe in Christ as the Son of
Man and the Son of God, not in spite of, but because we are, Jews. We believe that
Jesus is the Divine King of our people, the sum and substance or our Scriptures, the
fulfiller of our Law and our Prophets, the embodiment of all the promises of our
covenant. Our testimony is that of Jews to Jews.

Such a position would have been an impossible one even in the previous century. The
emancipation of the Jews also brought with it the emancipation of the Jewish Christian. No
longer need he deny his race, but could openly proclaim himself for what he was.

Ill

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Chapter XIX

Twelve weary centuries had passed since Jewish Christianity lost its corporate existence,
twelve centuries in which any suspicion of Jewishness any convert was condemned as Christian
apostasy and punished with all the cruelty of the times. Like a peaceful village over which the
tide of battle has flowed and retreated, and the villagers are returning one by one to their ruined
homesteads and devastated fields to build and to plan again and to live together, so Jewish
Christianity began at first hesitatingly, but gradually with more confidence, to reorganize and
reconstruct. Yet things could not be as once they had been. Times had changed, suffering had
taught new lessons, it was not possible or politic to rebuild on the old plan, to restate the faith in
quite the same terms. Nevertheless, it was on the same basis that the foundations had to be laid, a
Jewish Christian basis, quite distinctive from that of the Gentile Christian, though in many
respects akin.

There were those who wished to build on the plan of the places of exile, or the pattern of
the Christian sects to which they had become attached. There were others who had lost all desire
for religious repatriation, and held aloof Others again denounced the work as contrary to Divine
intention: the destruction, they claimed, was proof that a communal Jewish Christianity had been
done away with, and that assimilation to the universal Church was the design of the present
dispensation.

The arguments that have been used, and are still being used, are not new, neither arc they
justifiable. No doubt they were employed by the Jews of Babylon when the faithful remnant set
out to return and build the walls of Zion. The great work is still in its infancy, foreign influences
are still strong, there are many Sanballats to impede the work and to attempt to bring it to naught,
the loyal Jewish Christian must still be ready to pause in his building to defend his new found
liberty. The cry is raised: "What do these feeble Jews?" It will yet be seen what God will do.

A portent of the new era for Jewish Christianity was visible in the consecration to the
newly-created Anglican See of Jerusalem of Bishop Michael Solomon Alexander in 1841, the
first Jewish Christian Bishop of Jerusalem since A.D. 135.

Alexander was bom at Schonlanke in Posen in 1799. and grew to manhood in an
orthodox Jewish home. He came to England in 1820,

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being at that time wholly unacquainted with Christianity. At Colchester, where he had settled as
a tutor, he happened to see a handbill notifying the annual meeting of the London Jews' Society,
and this so aroused his curiosity that he obtained and read the New Testament. Later he became
rabbi of the Jewish congregation at Norwich, and subsequently at Plymouth, where in 1821 he
married a Miss Levy of that town. The instrument of his conversion was the Rev. B.B. Golding,
curate of Stonehouse, to whom he gave lessons in Hebrew. He was eventually baptized in 1825,
and it was his joy to discover that his wife quite unknown to him had been a secret inquirer.
After ordination as deacon, and then as priest, he became a missionary of the London Jews'
Society (1827-1841). During part of this time he held the post of Professor of Hebrew and
Rabbinical Literature in King's College, London. In 1840. Professor Alexander's name appeared
at the head of a list of sixty Jewish Christians who had subscribed to a formal "protest of

112

Christian Jews in England" against the Blood Libel, that Jews used Christian blood in their
Passover rites.

In 1841 King Frederic William IV of Prussia, desiring to ameliorate the condition of
Protestants in the Holy Land, proposed to Great Britain, through Chevalier Bunsen the
establishment of a joint episcopal representative at Jerusalem. The suggestion was cordially
accepted. Parliament passed a Bill to found and endow a Bishopric, which received Queen
Victoria's assent on October 5, 1841.

The offer of the Bishopric was made, in the first instance, to Dr. McCaul, who declined it
on the ground that a Jewish Christian ought to occupy the position. Alexander was thereupon
selected and consecrated as first Bishop of the new see on Sunday, November 7, 1841, in
Lambeth Palace by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the presence of a distinguished company.
The next morning the new Bishop celebrated Holy Communion in the Episcopal Jews' Chapel,
and in the evening preached his last sermon before his departure from England, prophetically as
it afterwards transpired from the text: "And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall mc there."

Jerusalem was reached on January 21, 1842, and it was a day of great rejoicing when the
Jewish Bishop entered the city of his fathers. In conformity with instructions received from
Constantinople, proclamation was made in the mosques that, "he who touches the Anglican
Bishop will be regarded as touching the apple of Pasha's eye." In his last annual

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letter, written in 1845 just before he started on the journey to Cairo which resulted in his death.
Bishop Alexander referred to that great event in his life. He spoke of that day as;

much to be remembered, even when the results, which have already followed in
this short period, be alone taken into consideration; but a day which we trust will
yet prove one of the most remarkable in the history of the Church, when the Lord
"shall bind up Zion, and appear in His glory." and when all, who now mourn for
her, seeing her desolate and trodden down, shall rejoice for joy with her; and when
God's people shall be delighted with the abundance of her glory.

His tragic death occurred it the desert at Ras-el-Wady on the road to Egypt, by the
rupture of a blood vessel, on November 26, 1 845, after a brief episcopate of only four years. His
remains were brought back to Jerusalem and interred in the English cemetery. The highest
testimony to his life and example was that contained in a letter of condolence to Mrs. Alexander,
signed by thirty-one Jewish Christians of Jerusalem, who had acknowledged their Messiah
through the bishop's instrumentality. The signatories said:

Next to yourself and your dear family, we consider ourselves the chief mourners;
for we feel both collectively and individually that we have lost not only a true
father in Christ, but also a loving brother and a most kind friend. The suavity and
benignity of his manner, which so greatly endeared him to all, and which gained
him the highest and most entire filial confidence of every one of us, tend much to
increase the keen sense we feel of our loss. The affectionate love he bore to Israel,
which peculiarly characterized him, could not fail to render him beloved by every
one who had the privilege of being acquainted with him; while his exalted piety,
and most exemplary life and conversation, inspired the highest reverential esteem.

113

He was a burning and shining light; and when he was raised to the highest dignity
in the Church, he conferred the most conspicuous honor on our whole nation, but
especially on the little band of Jewish believers. With him captive, Judah's
brightest earthly star has set, and the top stone has been taken away from the rising
Hebrew Church. '^^

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It was in London, in Palestine Place, for so many years an oasis for wandering Israelites,
that the first exclusively Hebrew Christian Association was formed. Here in the Jews' Chapel on
September 9, 1813. a group of forty-one Jewish Christians met together to constitute themselves
an association called Beni Avraham, Children of Abraham, who undertook to meet for prayer
every Sunday morning and Friday evening: to attend divine worship at the chapel and to visit
daily, two by two in rotation, any sick member, to pray with him and read the Bible to him; and
on Sunday, all who could were to visit the sick one.

In 1835 the ministry of this association was extended, and it was now known as the
episcopal Jews' Chapel Abrahamic Society, for visiting and relieving Jewish converts and
inquirers. Twenty-five years later this Society's beneficent work was still being carried on.'^^

Another body which for many years served to unite Jewish Christians in a spiritual
fellowship was the Hebrew Christian Prayer Union, founded in 1882 by Dr. H.A. Stern. Its
objects were the promotion of unity, piety and brotherly feeling amongst Jewish converts, by
means of mutual prayer and religious intercourse. Prayer was offerred privately by each member
on Saturday, and there were general meetings for prayer in London at stated seasons. Stern was
the first President. The membership rose from 143 in 1883, to 600 in 1890; and branches were
formed in Germany, Norway, Romania, Russia, Palestine and the United States. '^"^

But while these movements have interest as expressing the need of Jewish Christians for
mutual dependence both in prayer and charity, they have no claim to be regarded as forerunners
of a revived Jewish Christianity. The first united stand of Jewish Christians, as such, was made
in 1866 when Dr. C. Schwartz, minister of Trinity Chapel, Edgware Road, London, built by
another Jewish Christian, Ridley Herschell, formed a Hebrew-Christian Union. The objects are
stated to have been:

1 To promote a social and frequent personal intercourse
among Christian Israelites by meeting together at stated periods.

2 To stir up and stimulate one another in the endeavor of uniting with, and caring
for, our brethren.

3 To search the Scriptures together relating to Israel and Israel's King.

The opening verse of Psalm 133 "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to
dwell together in unity," was taken as the motto of the

154

Union.

Dr. Schwartz also commenced to edit in January 1866, the first Jewish Christian
periodical. The Scattered Nation.

114

The great forward step was taken on April 25, 1866, when the following circular letter
was issued to Jewish Christians.

Dear Brother,

It has occurred to us that it would be desirable and profitable that as many Israelites
who believe in Jesus as can be brought together should meet in London on the 23rd
of May.

Our object is to become acquainted with one another, and to be built up in our holy
faith. There are special ties which bind us together as descendant of Abraham, and
we believe that this conference for prayer and consultation might issue in a
permanent union of Jewish Christian brethren in this land.

We do not come before you with any definite plan for action, but would simply say
that, as there exists an Evangelical and a Jewish, an Hebrew-Christian Alliance also
might be formed.

We trust that you feel with us the desirableness and importance of such a meeting,
and that we may reckon your presence and on your prayers.

An early reply, sent to the address of Dr. Schwartz, would greatly oblige.

With the prayer that the Lord may bless us all.

Dear brother, yours very sincerely,

AD. Herschell
H. Liebstein
M. Margoiouth
T.E. Neuman
A. Pitowsky
J. Steinhardt
A. Saphir
C. Schwartz

The Rev. A. M. Meyer, Dr. M. Schulhof, and other brethren, have promised to
attend.

Eighty Jewish Christians met on the day appointed, and Dr. Schwartz afterwards wrote:
"We may boldly say that such a gathering of convened Jews exclusively had not been witnessed
since the early days of the Christian Church."

155

On the motion of Rev. A. M. Meyer, seconded by Dr. Ginsburg, Dr. Schwartz took the
chair. The Rev. A. M. Meyer introducing the subject of the desirability of a Hebrew-Christian
Alliance, said:

Let us not sacrifice our identity. When we profess Christ, we do not cease to be
Jews; Paul, after his conversion, did not cease to be a Jew: not only Saul was, but
even Paul remained, a Hebrew of the Hebrews. We cannot and will not forget the
land of our fathers, and it is our desire to cherish feelings of patriotism.... As

115

Hebrews, as Christians, we feel tied together; and as Hebrew Christians, we desire
to be aUied more closely to one another.

It was unanimously resolved that a Hebrew-Christian Alliance be formed. The
proceedings on this occasion were in private; but the following year a crowded public meeting
was held at Willis' Rooms, King Street, St. James', on May 14, 1867, under the presidency of
Dr. Schwartz, when, among the resolutions passed was the following:

That though the members of the Alliance belong to different Churches, they all feel
united in Christ, and they declare before their Jewish brethren that they have found
in Jesus, the Messiah, to whom the Law and Prophets bear testimony, that they
have peace in His blood, and look for His coming in glory as the Hope of Israel.

It is evident from its history, which has now reached the Psalmist's span of life, that the
Hebrew-Christian Alliance represented no temporary burst of enthusiasm, but was the outcome
of a real desire for corporate witness for Christ as Jews, a desire that has only increased with the
passing of the years. Among the distinguished Presidents have been men like Dr. Rosedald,
Aaron Bernstein, Ben-Oliel, Isaac Levinson, Samuel Schor and E. Bendor Samuel. In 1915, the
movement crossed the Atlantic and the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America was founded
under the presidency of the Rev. S. B. Rohold.

The Jewish Christian movements which we have been considering were associations
within the bounds of the established churches. The members owned allegiance to one or other of
the Christian denominations. It remained for Joseph Rabinowitz in 1882 to found the first Jewish
Christian communion in modern times which belonged to no definite denomination, but was
rather in the nature of a synagogue of Jewish believers in Jesus.

156

The story of Rabinowitz is a remaikable one. He may without unfair comparison be
described as the Herzel of Jewish Christianity.

Rabinowitz was bom at Resina on the Dniester, September 23, 1837, the son of David
ben Ephraim. Owing to the early death of his mother, he was taken into the family of his
maternal grandfather, Nathan Neta, where he remained until he was eleven years of age. At the
age of six, he could repeat the Song of Solomon by heart.

His youth was spent in Chasidic circles, and he showed great promise of literary ability.
At thirteen he was betrothed, though he did not marry until six years later. It was his future
brother-in-law, Jehiel Hershensohn (Lichtenstein) who first introduced him to the New
Testament by lending him a Hebrew copy, at the same time remarking that perhaps Jesus of
Nazareth was the true Messiah. Rabinowitz was greatly surprised at this suggestion, but its only
apparent effect on him was to cause him to leave the Chasidim and earnestly to study the Bible.
He returned with his grandfather to Orgeyev and took up law as his profession so that he could
practise as a solicitor among his own people. He took an active interest in communal affairs, and
was a frequent contributor to the Jewish newspapers: he also gave lectures at Kischineff in which
he advocated reform and progressive ideas. In 1878 he wrote an article in the Hebrew paper
Haboker Or, in which he urged on the rabbis to improve the conditions of Russian Jewry by
sponsoring agricultural training, and he himself set an example by putting his garden under
cultivation. Shortly afterwards, when a wave of persecution broke out, he went to Palestine on a

116

mission of inquiry with a view in establishing a Jewish colony there. The Hebrew New
Testament given to him many years before went with him as a guide book. When he reached
Jerusalem and saw the miserable state of the Jewish inhabitants, he was deeply depressed; but
before he left the Holy City he ascended the Mount of Olives. Sitting there and viewing the
Mosque of Omar, where formerly the Temple stood, his mind went back over the tragic history
of his people. What was the meaning of the age-old tale of Israel's suffering? In a flash the
answer came to him: "The key to the Holy Land is in the hands of our brother Jesus."

Filled with the glory of a great vision, Rabinowitz returned to Kischineff, and with great
power and enthusiasm set forth his belief In a short time he had gathered around him numerous
adherents to his doctrine not only in Kischineff, but in many other towns of Bessarabia. The faith
of the movement, which called itself "Israelites of the New Covenant," was

157

set forth in thirteen articles of faith on the model of those drawn up by Maimonides.

In 1885 Rabinowitz took the decisive step of being baptized in Berlin; and although this
restricted his work to some extent, owing to Jewish prejudice against baptism, his labors
continued unabated. He was invited to join the Lutheran Church and also the Russian Church,
but he was wholly loyal to his people and would not attend a place of Christian worship where a
crucifix was displayed. Subsequently he built a hall which became a Jewish Christian
Synagogue. A Christian minister, Mr. Faber, saw his work and brought back this description:

Rabinowitz is a preacher of the Gospel in the spirit of the Jewish nationality: a
preacher gifted, so versed in the Scriptures, so deeply rooted in the Divine Word of
the New Covenant, as the Jewish nation has not possessed since the days of the
Apostles. This is his great importance. His sermons published in Hebrew, Russian,
and the jargon (Yiddish), reach, in ten thousands of copies, the masses of the Jews
in Eastern Europe. They find eager readers in the most remote districts of Siberia,
and in the secluded valleys of the Carpathian mountains. The writer of these lines
has had personal opportunities of seeing the profound influence of Rabinowitz' s
pamphlets in Galicia and Lithuania.

Jewish antagonists of the movement spoke of Rabinowiiz as the Babbler, but it was
noticeable that the general attitude towards the person of Jesus was much improved. A
Committee in Great Britain was formed to support the work, but there were many Christians who
looked askance at this combination of Judaism and Christianity as if the hydrogen of the Old
Covenant and the oxygen of the New Covenant did not naturally combine to produce the Water
of Life. The old fear still persisted.

Rabinowiiz died in 1899; but in Bessarabia his name and memory continue to be
honored, and a steadily increasing Jewish Christian organization now incorporated as the
Hebrew Christian Alliance of Bessarabia perpetuates his pioneer efforts to bridge the gulf
between Church and Synagogue and to bring back the Scattered Nation to its proper allegiance.

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Chapter XX

There could be no doubt that Rabinowitz and his movement had caused a fluttering in
Christian circles. Here was no imposing of the Christian faith on Jews from without, but an
adoption, or rather reclamation, of Christianity by Jews from within. The churches could stand
by, but they could not participate in this domestic matter. It was clear that Jesus must be
something more to the Jew than he could be to the Gentile, for he was the legal King of Israel. It
was like watching the growth of a royalist party within an old-established republic.

The same spirit which led Theodore Herzel to seek the solution of the Jewish problem in
a revived Jewish State had led Joseph Rabinowitz to seek a solution in a Jewish divinely
controlled Kingdom, with Jesus as the sovereign. In both cases it was the manifestation of anti-
semitism that was the influential cause. It must be remembered that the New Testament was a
sealed book to thousands of Jews, and never having read it they judged the book by the deeds of
those who claimed to be bound by its teaching. It was in desperation that they turned to it now to
find the exact authority which lay behind the pogroms and blood-libels. The situation is
exemplified by the experience of Rabbi I. Lichtenstein, district rabbi of Tapio-Szele in Hungary.
In a pamphlet called Judenspiegel he wrote:

I used to think that Christ was the plague and curse of the Jews, the origin and
promoter of our sorrow and persecution. In this conviction I grew to years of
manhood, and still cherishing it I became old. I knew no difference between true,
and merely nominal Christianity; of the fountain head of Christianity itself I knew
nothing. Strangely enough, it was the horrible Tisza-Eszlar blood accusation which
first drew me to read the New Testament. This trial brought from their lurking-
places all the enemies of the Jews, and once again, as in olden times, the cry
reechoed, "Death to the Jew!" The frenzy was excessive, and among the ringleaders
were many who used the name of Christ and his doctrine as a cloak to cover their
abominable doings. These wicked practices of men, wearing the name of Christ
only to further their evil dangers, aroused the indignation of the true Christians,
who, with pen on fire and warning voices, denounced the lying rage of the anti-
semites. In articles written

159

by the latter in defence of the Jews, I often met with passages where Christ was
spoken of as he who brings joy to man, the Prince of Peace, and the Redeemer, and
his Gospel was extolled as a message of love and life to all people. I was surprised,
and, scarcely trusting my eyes, I took a New Testament out of its hidden corner; a
book which some forty years ago I had in vexation taken from a Jewish teacher,
and I began to turn over its leaves and to read. How can I express the impression
which I then received? Not the half had been told me of the greatness, power, and
glory of this book, formerly a sealed book to me. All seemed so new to me, and yet
it did me good like the sight of an old friend, who has laid side his dusty, travel-
worn garments, and appears in festal attire.

In another ^amp\\[Qt Judenthum und Christenthtum he says:

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A sudden glory, a light, flashed through my soul. I looked for thorns, and gathered
roses: I discovered pearls instead of pebbles; instead of hatred, love; instead of
vengeance, forgiveness; instead of bondage, freedom; instead of pride, humility;
instead of enmity, conciliation; instead of death, lire, salvation, resurrection, and
heavenly treasure.

Rabbi Lichtenstein began to quote the New Testament from his pulpit to the scandal of
some of his congregants, who accused him to the chief rabbi of Budapest of heterodoxy. The
outcome was that Rabbi Lichtenstein admitted his faith in Christ, and had to resign his office.
His voice could not be stilled, however, and he went on preaching the amazing truth that had
been revealed to him. He would not be baptized, and remained with the Jewish community until
his death at the advanced age of eighty-five, on October 16, 1909.

Lichtenstein and Rabinowitz were no isolated cases: they had their contemporaries and
their immediate successors; they were, indeed, representative of an entirely new generation of
Jewish Christians more on the pattern of the original Nazarenes. The position of these New
Covenant Jews raised an acute problem in the Christian Church. They would not be absorbed,
they would not be assimilated. They claimed the right as Jews to maintain the name and customs
of their race. They held that they had not forsaken Judaism, but crowned it with Jesus, the chief
corner stone. Understanding Christians welcomed and sympathized with the manifestation: it
answered to their own scriptural convictions that Israel

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would return to its allegiance with resultant revival of true faith among all believers. They looked
to the Jewish Christians to proclaim a purer Christianity, uninfluenced by the doctrinal
controversies which had rent the Catholic Church. Others, fearful that an independent reading of
the New Testament by the Jews, untutored by Gentile traditional interpretations, would
undermine the structure of their faith, raised a loud cry of Ebionitism. If Jewish Christianity
would not submit to be poured into their peculiar denominational mould, they were determined
to wreck it by branding it as a heresy. The liberty which the apostle Paul had won for the
Gentiles they were unwilling to grant to the Jews. A particularly insistent evangelical group
raised the standard of what they called "dispensational truth" in an effort to prove that until the
second advent of Jesus it was impossible for the Jewish people to be converted, and therefore
that any attempt to found a separate national Jewish Christian communion was outside of the
Divine Plan, and foredoomed to failure.

On this 'Ebionite" issue the battle was joined. The old theology apportioned the Biblical
blessings to the Church and left the curses to the Jews. One cannot help feeling that much of
Gentile Christian anxiety was now lest the tables should be turned, and that Jacob would
somehow trick Laban out of his birthright of the Promised Land and leave him only the barren
Mount Seir. Jewish Christianity would have both the Law and the Promises and Gentile
Christianity would be relegated to the position of the poor relation accepting the spiritual charity
of Israel.

One very vital aspect of the situation the Gentile Christians entirely ignored, and that was
the injury they were doing to the simple enthusiastic faith of the Jewish Christians by embroiling
them in their doctrinal controversies. Many a Jewish convert entered the Church in the naive
belief that all Christians were brethren. They had no prior knowledge of the subtler
denominational distinctions, and the discovery was a grave shock to their idealism. Even worse.

119

they frequently found that they were not wanted in the Church, and were frozen out by ill-
disguised dislike. The Jewish temperament, so susceptible to atmospheric feeling, wilted with the
chill of Christian austerity. The convert, who had dared all for Christ's sake, and expected the
warmth of his new brethren to solace him for what he had lost, was subjected to the torture of a
loneliness which only the deepest faith could support. With a wry smile the Jewish Christians
touched the limp hand of charity, shuddering inwardly at the contact. Gladly do we admit that his
bitter experience was not

161

universal. There were Gentile Christians who were friends of Israel in deed as well as in name,
and who poured themselves out in love to bring comfort to the stranger. These received their
reward in a very passion of gratitude and responsive affection.

Among the mistakes of the Church in dealing with Jewish Christians has been a too ready
action on the principle that all converts should of necessity become missionaries to their own
people, whether they were qualified for this work or otherwise. The desire for witness is always
strong among those who have found a great truth, which appears to them to give form and
meaning to chaotic and inexplicable circumstances: it springs mainly from a high-souled and
wholly good desire to share the blessings we enjoy with others less fortunate. Missionary service
often however, works a subtle change in motive and transforms a beneficent instinct into
something that partakes of spiritual arrogance and in time becomes a quite indefensible mania for
proselytism. Very few, and only those who live in the closest contact with God, are able to resist
this process. How utterly true are the words of Paul: "And how shall they preach, except they be
sent?"

The situation has been particularly difficult for those Jewish Christians whose former life
has been spent in enclosed Jewish surroundings. By accepting Christ they have not only been
cast out of their homes, but out of their places of employment. Some have been scholars and
knew no trade. In any case, their Jewishness made engagement by a Gentile employer difficult.
The Mission door opened up a way not only of keeping body and soul together, but of expressing
devotion to Christ in practical service. It has only been realized later that service to Christ has
become servitude to a Committee, and to break away meant untold hardship not only to self but
to wife and children, which family love — so strong in the Jew — dare not contemplate. Some
Missions have been wiser than to insist on the convert becoming a missionary, when he has had
no vocation, and they have established trade training-schools and workshops with a view to
making him self-supporting and independent. Such efforts are all to the good, but the relief is
still small, having no regard to the growing numbers of Jews who are finding their spiritual peace
in following their Messiah. It is plain that the real solution to the problem can only come when
Jewish prejudice has sufficiently abated, and the much vaunted Jewish tolerance is no longer an
impressive but quite unsubstantial argument in contrasting Christianity with Judaism, but is real
and and manly enough to give liberty of conscience to Jewish

162

Christians and so to banish forever the pain of the broken family circle. One knows that the root
cause is the Jewish fear of assimilation, which sees in the cutting off of the offending member
the only means of safeguarding the integrity of the race. When this fear is removed by the
superlative Jewishness attached to Jewish Christianity, then it is to be anticipated that a better
state of affairs will result.

120

At a series of missionary conferences from the close of the nineteenth century to the
outbreak of the Great War in 1914 the Ebionite theme recurred again and again and was dealt
with according to the convictions of the various speakers.

Mark John Levy, a sturdy advocate of the loyal Jewish Christian position and founder of
the Christian Jews' Patriotic Alliance, succeeded in bringing the subject before the British
Hebrew Christian Alliance in the 'nineties; but his resolution was "tabled" undoubtedly because
of its supposed danger to the servants of the missionary societies. Dr. Rosedale, the president,
actually confessed to Levy that "The Hebrew Christian missionaries are dependent on the
Gentile Christians for support and they cannot afford injustice to their families to risk the charge
of Judaizing."

Elsewhere others were raising the standard of Jewish Christian independence; in Galatia
there was Christian Theodore Lucky: in Hamburg Paulus Grun through the columns of his
magazine Ephratha, organ of the Jewish Christian Association, and again in South Africa Philip
Cohen, who edited The Messianic Jew for the Jewish messianic Movement. Cohen gives three
cogent reasons for a change of attitude on the part of Jewish Christians:

1 Deep love to our own nation, to its history and its traditions.

2 A deep conviction that we who are Hebrew Christians can best serve the cause of
Christ by demonstrating to our people that we still belong to them.

3 The conviction that Jewish Christianity can only impress the Jewish mind by taking
on a distinctively Jewish coloring.

Lucky in an impassioned speech at a Jewish Christian Conference in Stanislau in 1903
stated:

I do not demand from my fellow-believers the complete and

163

strict observance of all Jewish customs at any price. Here is a brother who says,
"We live in exile and are not our own masters, and though I would like to keep the
entire ceremonial law, and all the more because I am a disciple of Jesus, I cannot do
it. I am a soldier and must eat barrack fare. I must rest on Sunday and work on the
Sabbath for the sake of by daily bread." Well, he is my brother nevertheless. I do
not judge his conscience, nor is he to let me be a conscience to him in the matter of
meals, or of the Sabbath, all of which are only a shadow of that of which we have
the substance in Christ. On the other hand, another says, "Because I believe in
Christ therefore I give up the Sabbath." Well, he is no less acceptable to God on
that account, and I do not despise him for it nor condemn him. But I am sorry for
him, and it hurts me to the depth of my heart because he too is a child of Israel and
should help us to build up the walls of Jerusalem.

Mark Levy, in 1907. addressed an appeal to the General Assembly of the Episcopal
Church of the United States, in which he pleaded for the restoration of the original Hebrew
Christian branch of the Church, and for the public proclamation of the Scriptural truth.

121

That the Church does not require its Jewish members to forsake their own people,
but leaves them in their Christ-given liberty to have their children circumcised
according to God's covenant with Abraham, should they so desire, and to observe
all the other customs inherited from their fathers, provided it be clearly understood
that neither Jew nor Gentile can be saved through the works of the Law, but solely
through the sacrifice and atonement of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

The General Assembly responded with a resolution in that sense, retaining the exact
words that Levy had used.

Neither were there wanting Gentile Christians who fully appreciated the need for the
establishment of a revived Jewish Christian communion. That famous Hebraist, the late Canon
B. H. Box, said at the London Missionary Conference of 1903:

I venture to beseech Jewish Christians to take this question into their prayerful
consideration. I know full well that many of them are affectionately attached to
Gentile Christian communities, and that it will be fairly difficult to find a common

164

basis. But I would ask them at least to set this unity before them as their goal. And
should a homogeneous Hebrew Christian Church be formed centering round a
liturgy which is informed with a certain adaptation to the national and historic
Jewish spirit, may those who cannot give their full and hearty allegiance to such a
Church at least refrain from putting hindrances in the way of its free development.

The Rev. Th. Lindhagen at the International Jewish Missionary Conference at Stockholm
in 1911 rightly stated:

It cannot be denied that up to now the relation of the Jewish Christians to their
people has been far from altogether satisfactory. The reproaches which have been
levelled against them and against the missionaries who work among them are
unfortunately only too well grounded. It is quite true that there are Jewish
Christians and missionaries to the Jews who make an altogether vicious use of
Paul's word to the Galatians, "There is neither Jew nor Greek." The apostle cannot
have meant these words as advocating the annihilation of their nationality .... It is
equally true that the Gentile Church has helped to estrange Jewish Christians from
their own people through calling them "proselj^es." an unscriptural term in direct
opposition to the pronouncements of Paul in Romans 11, where he speaks of the
Jews as the natural branches, and the Gentiles as branches of a wild olive which
had been grafted on to the good tree against all natural tendency. In this respect a
thorough-going change of policy and practice is necessary. "I am verily a man
which am a Jew, a Hebrew of the Hebrews" — there is much need for these words
to be heard and spoken once more without shame among our Jewish Christian
brethren. That the ideal of an autonomous Jewish Christian Church is closely
connected with these aspiration regarding the right attitude of Hebrew Christians to
their people is self-evident.

So the struggle went on, the pangs which heralded the coming birth of a new Jewish
Christianity. The fact that the issue was so widely discussed, and that feeling ran so high, was in

122

itself sufficient indication that no mere academic question was being dealt with, but that there
was a definite quickening, a separate Jewish Christian consciousness was taking form.

165

Then came the World War, and for a time the tribulation of Jewish Christianity was
submerged in the tribulation of the nations. Yet the war itself was to be linked with this strange
history in the mysterious purposes of God.

123

166

Chapter XXI

There are many earnest Christians who consider that the most important outcome of the
terrible World War of 1914-1918 was the wresting of the Holy Land from the Turks and the
British Balfour declaration guaranteeing to the scattered Jewish people a national home in
Palestine. These events, whatever may be the view of the reader on the subject of prophecy, were
of the utmost significance to those who believed that the age described in the Scriptures as "The
Times of the Gentiles" was drawing to a close. Before the great culmination it was necessary for
the Jews to be gathered back to their own land, where finally they would repentantly accept Jesus
as their true Messiah and become a missionary nation to the whole world. The war was thus
regarded as an instrument for the carrying out of the divine plan, another instance of God making
the wrath of man to praise Him. Such an interpretation of historic happenings is of a piece with
the whole story of the Jews, in so many respects unique. Nations have made history; but what
other nation has had its history written for it in advance ? Unbelief may scoff, but it cannot deny
the mysterious march of the cavalcade of God.

The Jew suffered in the war as acutely with every belligerent country, but especially in
eastern Europe where the tide of battle flowed back and forth across their habitations, and they
were regarded as the legitimate spoil of whichever army was for the time in occupation. Yet the
war brought them a measure of freedom in places where this had previously been denied to them.
Revolutions swept away ghettos as well as dynasties. There was a great turning away from the
old ways and the old traditions. For some Jews liberty led to atheistic Communism, for other it
led to nominal Christianity. When it became possible to gather reliable statistics, it was found
that 97,000 Jews had joined the church in Hungary, 17,000 in Austria, 35,000 in Poland, 60,000
in Russia, over 20,000 in America, and smaller numbers in other countries. Spontaneous
movements of a deeply spiritual character were to be noted expressing devotion to Jesus, but
distinct from any missionary endeavor — the "Seekers after God in Russia," the "Christ-
Believing Jews" in Hungary.

The situation was watched with the keenest interest by the various Jewish Christian
bodies. It was clear that some steps ought to be taken with a view to guiding and coordinating the
greatly increased body of

167

Jewish Believers. The initiative was taken by the Hebrew Christian Alliance of America
(founded in 1915). They suggested as a preliminary measure the convening of an International
Hebrew Christian Conference. Mark John Levy crossed the Atlantic several times in the interests
of the proposal. After protracted discussion and correspondence with the British Hebrew
Christian Alliance (founded in 1866), a joint letter of invitation was sent to Hebrew Christians in
all parts of the world. In its way, the letter was as significant as that famous epistle to the Gentile
believers issued by the first Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15). It was dated for March, 1925, and
read as follows:

Dear brethren in the Lord Jesus our Messiah,

We, members of the Hebrew Christian Alliances of Great Britain and America send
you hearty greetings.

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Since the days of the Apostles, Hebrew Christians have been scattered units in the
diaspora, ostracized by our unbelieving brethren and lost among the nations. We
believe, however, that the times of the Gentiles are king fulfilled and that the God
of our fathers, according to His gracious promise, is about to restore Israel to her
ancient heritage. We also believe that as Hebrew Christians, though a remnant
weak and small we have a share in the building up of "the Tabernacle of David that
is fallen down."

We deem it an opportune time to meet and confer together, seeking Divine
guidance by prayer and the Word of God.

We have therefore decided to hold D.V. an INTERNATIONAL HEBREW
CHRISTIAN CONFERENCE in London. England, this year from Saturday,
September 5 to Saturday, September 12, and to this we heartily invite you.

Many living in distant parts, maybe prevented from joining us by the heavy
travelling expenses, but it is hoped that the Hebrew Christians of various towns or
countries may be willing to raise the means and send delegates to represent them at
the Conference; they will then be able to take back a report of the proceedings.

The Hebrew Christian Alliance of London will, however, during the period of the
Conference. September 5-12, give themselves the pleasure of providing hospitality
to all delegates who will have registered beforehand and will have received cards
and badges. To such delegates full particulars, together with the

168

programme, will be sent in due course.

With cordial greetings.

On behalf of the Hebrew Christian Alliances of Great Britain and America,

Yours in our Common Master,

Samuel Schor, President

J.J. Lowe, Treasurer

E. Bendor Samuel, Hon. Secretary

The Conference duly met at the Wilson Memorial Hall, Islington, the only shadow over
the proceedings being the absence of The Rev. Samuel Schor, owing to illness. Rarely can there
have been witnessed such a fervent gathering. Eighteen countries were represented. On the
rostrum are proudly displayed die Union Jack and the Jewish Flag, while between them hung the
Jewish Christian motto, "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in
unity."

It was on September 8 that the historic resolution was carried unanimously:

That we Hebrew Christians from different parts of the world standing for the
Evangelical Faith now met in Conference, re-affirm our living faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, as our Messiah, and our oneness in Him; and do hereby declare that
we now form ourselves into an INTERNATIONAL HEBREW CHRISTIAN
ALLIANCE.

125

At the election of office-bearers Sir Leon Levinson was honored with the first presidency
of the newly-formed Alliance, and the wisdom of that choice became at once evident in his
presidential address which showed an immediate grasp of the great task to which he had been
called and to which he dedicated his service.

The first duty which the Executive Committee of the I.H.C.A. had to undertake was to
draw up a Constitution. The aims of the Alliance, as set forth in the completed document, are
given as follows:

1 To foster a spirit of fellowship and co-operation among
Hebrew Christians throughout the world.

a) By the establishment of local Alliances wherever possible.

b) By watching over the spiritual development and general welfare of converts, and
encouraging them to be witnesses for Christ among Israel in every sphere of life,

169

and thus to set up again under Divine guidance "the candlestick" of witness within
Jewery.

2 To present a untied witness on behalf of Christ, not only to the Jewish people,
but to the world.

3 To interpret the spirit of the Jewish people to the Christian world, and the spirit
of the Christian Gospel to the Jews.

4 To make it possible for Hebrew Christians, who may desire to do so, to share
in the activities of Zionism, and to claim for them equal rights in terms of the
Balfour Declaration.

5 To aid Churches and Societies in their selection of Hebrew Christian
candidates offering themselves forth Ministry, and supplying them with
information regarding Converts as occasion may arise.

6 To identify Hebrew Christians with the Jewish People in the defence of their
just rights in countries in which these rights are denied them, and, when necessary,
to protest against the spirit of Anti-Semitism.

The Constitution provided for the creation of National Alliances which should be
affiliated to the International body, and under "membership" opened the door for Christians not
of Jewish birth to become associate members, enjoying full rights except the power of voting. It
was also made quite clear that the I.H.C.A. would not come under the jurisdiction of any
Christian denomination.

From 1925 the history of Jewish Christianity becomes in effect, the history of the
I.H.C.A. One of the immediate results of its constitution was that many secret Jewish believers in
Jesus, including a number of rabbis, began to communicate with the Executive. It was the breath
of life to them to learn of a Jewish Christian fellowship. To such a body they could confide their
inmost convictions, where they had difficulty in approaching a Mission or a Gentile Church.

126

Within two years National Alliances had been formed in twelve different countries and
had been affiliated with the International. These comprised Great Britain. America (including
Canada), Germany. Russia, Poland, Latvia. Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland
and Palestine. In later years the number has risen to eighteen by the addition of Holland,
Rumania, Yugoslavia, Danzig, Portugal, and Australia.

170

At the Budapest and Warsaw Conferences held under the auspices of the International
Missionary Council in April 1927, attended by the President and other members of the Alliance,
it was put on record that :

The Conference has learned with great interest and sympathy of the formation and
growth of the I.HC.A, and expresses the hope that it may serve in uniting Christian
Jews throughout the world in an enriching spiritual fellowship and become a
blessing for the Jewish people, as also of the Christian Church.

The I.H.C.A. has held its own International Conference every three years since its
formation, and at these gatherings subjects of the highest importance for the future of Jewish
Christianity have been dealt with. Among them, it has been proposed to establish industrial and
agricultural colonies of Jewish Christians in Poland and Palestine, and plans are far advanced
towards putting these schemes into operation. At the 193 1 Conference a Commission was set up
to inquire into the desirability and practicability of forming a Hebrew Christian Church. As a
result of the findings of this Commission reported to the next Conference, a momentous decision
was taken in the passing of a resolution. "That this Conference approves the principle of the
establishment of a Hebrew Christian Church."

One of the most interesting events in the history of the Alliance happened in 1933, when,
during one of his visits to Palestine the President, Sir Leon Levison, received in Jerusalem a
deputation representing the Marranos of Portugal, descendants of the many thousands of Jews
who were compelled to accept the Christian faith in the days of the Inquisition. Work was
initiated among the Marranos, and before long they formed themselves into a Portuguese Hebrew
Christian Alliance.

When the terrible massacres of Jews by Arabs in Palestine took place in 1929, the
Alliance raised over £1,500 as a Relief Fund to succor Jewish families, and on many occasions a
protest has been made against anti-semitic propaganda.

The accession to power of the Nazi party in Germany initiated a bitter period of Jewish
persecution which still continues. The deliberate ousting of all Germans with Jewish blood in
their veins from their employment produced untold hardship and suffering. Hundreds of
thousands, who were wholly divorced from the Synagogue, and did not even know that they
were of Jewish extraction, were ruthlessly penalized, and their plight created an acute problem
far the Alliance. Organizations were quickly

171

set up to ameliorate the lot of the Jewish sufferers, but the Jewish Christians and non- Aryan
Christians were largely denied relief from these sources, and their pitiful appeals came before the
I.H.C.A. Almost every other consideration had to be abandoned in an effort to raise funds for
German relief and to endeavor to place as many as possible in employment in other countries.
But all that could be done was like a drop in the ocean, and it has become clear that more definite

127

action must yet be taken if the situation, unparalleled since the Middle Ages, is not to develop for
the worse.

The common distress at least has had the effect of partially bridging the gulf between the
non-Christian and the Christian Jew. In Jewish circles it used to be asked facetiously, "Where
and what are the Jewish Christians?" Today, the I.H.C.A. is the sufficient answer. A measure of
actual co-operation has been achieved which augurs well for the future, and even in the Church
the Alliance has brought recognition that the Jewish Christian has a special position to occupy in
the economy of the Kingdom of God. Basil Mathews has stated:

From the Christian side, we do not believe it to be in the purpose of God that the
Jewish Christian should be deprived of full opportunity of making his awn
distinctive racial and cultural contribution within the Christian Church. We should
not seek in any way to detach him from his own heritage, and should gladly receive
from that heritage all that will enrich our own faith. '^^

The change in the condition of Jewish Christianity which has taken place within the last
century, and particularly within the last decade, is little short of miraculous. One by one the
positions lost in the age-old triumph of the Gentile Church have been regained. A revived Jewish
Christian independent religious communion is within measurable distance of achievement. The
wheel has turned full circle.

To what purpose is all this? It is that Jewish Christianity with its accumulated experiences
of human passions and Divine love has a potent message to give to a world crying aloud for light
and truth? Is it that these patient followers of the King Messiah have a leading part to play in the
restoration of peace and international brotherhood to a world sown with dissension and distrust?
Is there after all something in the Mosaic vision of "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation,"
playing a mediatorial part between the nations and their God? Those who seek an answer to these

172

questions must go to the Fountain-head and to the word of His revelation.

Beat by beat Jewish Christianity has followed the music of the great prophetic strains in
Handel's Messiah, steadfast in the hope that one day the Hallelujah Chorus will ring out, and
mighty voices as of a great multitude, as the voice of many waters, shall cry:

The kingdoms of this world are became the kingdoms of our Lord and of His
Messiah; and He shall reign for ever and ever.'"^

Addendum to Chapter XXI

Extracts from Sir Leon Levison's Address on being elected First President of the
International Hebrew Christian Alliance, September 9, 1925:

My dear brethren and sisters, I am deeply moved by the great honor you have seen fit to
confer on me. I can hardly find words adequately to express my gratitude to you. I know my
shortcomings; I know how onerous and how great is the position to which you have elected me;
and I pray God, Who alone sees my heart, that He will direct me and you in the great work that
lies before us. Brethren, you have perhaps little idea at present of what a body such as we have
constituted can and will do: but, please God, if we each and all of us go back to our own places

128

as ambassadors of this great Conference, determined to organize, coordinate, and unite the
various behevers in Christ from amongst the Jews into bodies, which shall be affiliated to this
International, so that they may thereby be cheered and comforted and strengthened, you will find
that in a few short years you will yourselves be rewarded by God in seeing the beauty of unity
and the grandeur of love when it permeates, and is allowed to work freely in the hearts of the
followers of Christ, who is the very essence of love itself

To my colleagues I would say, first of all, that so far as I am concerned, I can promise you
that you shall never be let down. I will always be at your beck and call, doing my utmost in
anything that you might have to suggest, in so far as it is going to advance the Kingdom of God
amongst the Jews, or in any assistance that I might be able to render by way of coming and
bringing cheer and comfort and help: and I do trust that, if you want this International to be a
success, you will give me and the International Hebrew Christian Alliance your utmost loyalty. If
the officer-bearers stand by each other, and are permeated with a great desire and zeal

173

for Christ and his Kingdom, we shall be able to bring life and comfort and joy into the hearts of
the scattered members of our race who are believers in Christ, throughout the world.

What are we to work for? What are we to be loyal to? I think that the body which has now
come into being has a great variety of interests, in which, if we try to contribute all that is best
and highest in us, we shall find that we may become a power in the world as well as amongst our
own Hebrew Christian brethren. To be a power in the world, we must try to have a clear outlook,
a Christlike outlook. We must try and avoid those narrow, bigoted, prejudiced feelings and ideas
which would curb us and distract us and hinder us from going onward and upward and on to
victory. Therefore we must pray — and when I say pray, I mean we must work and pray ~ if we
are to make it really effective, that we may see each thing in its own proportion, as God would
have it. . . .

Our relationship to each other must be maintained in unity, because, as I said yesterday, we
are a twice-despised and twice-exiled people — exiled along with the Jewish race, and exiled
from the Jewish race because of our belief; despised like the Jewish race, but despised by the
Jewish race because of our belief Therefore, the great need that we all have is just a warm-
hearted, deep love for one another that shall stand us in stead of everything and make up far all
things, because Christ has promised to bless such in the cause with his own love. . . .

Then our relationship with the Jews, and for the Jews, with the Church — I feel, brethren,
that antisemitism would have been three thousand percent more severe than it is today, had it not
been for the fact that something like three hundred to six hundred missionaries, Hebrew
Christian missionaries or missionaries working among the Jews, are going about in America, in
Great Britain, in Germany, everywhere, week in and week out, preaching and pleading before
Christian people the cause of Israel, and that propaganda must make the Jews realize what it
means.... We are going into churches, drawing-rooms, chapels, prayer meetings, prayer unions,
and conferences and places of all kinds and descriptions where Christian people meet, and we are
the ones who make people realize that a Jew is a human being like themselves, that he has a soul
and affections ... a man who has got a home and a home life, and one from whom they can learn
a good deal if they try to study him.... We can do much by sending representatives from our
International Hebrew Christian Alliance to the Church; we can more effectively call the attention
of the Christian world

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174

than the Jews can, and we are going to do it, and to show the Christian world that we believe in
Jesus Christ, and are happy to love and to serve him — and just as happy to die for him.

Yet that does not mean betraying our race. It does not mean forsaking our Jewish brethren; it
means, on the contrary, that we are prepared to do more for their welfare spiritually than all the
Rabbis put together. You may feel that this is rather an exaggerated remark, but I make it
advisedly, my brethren, because, in my own experience, I know of Hebrew Christian
missionaries and Hebrew Christians here, there, and everywhere, who have gone round for years
and years on a starvation wage, some of them having no pay and seeking no pay, while others
have had just enough to maintain themselves, yet who have received such treatment that no
Rabbi would every remain a Rabbi far three days if he had to put with it. Our missionaries, in the
name of Christ and in the strength of his love, have continued in spite of it all to this day .... We
have got a great love because we have got a great Christ, a great a great Savior, a great Example
on the Cross; and therefore we must, and we can, as we have the means now, put it to our people
that by accepting Christ, it is a question of "God and myself," not a question of My race, and my
people."

I think that we cannot blame the Jews altogether. They do not understand us. What we must
aim at now is to let them realize that we belong to no band or captain save Jesus Christ, who was
a Jew, who came to the House of Israel, whom we have discovered, and who we love and serve,
and that we are of their own flesh and blood, as we come to them. If we put it to them aright, we
shall get to them in two ways. When we come to Zionism, we shall show we have a unity of
sentiment that is not confined to London alone, but extends throughout the world, and, being a
community instead of an individual, we shall be treated as community. They are not asking the
Christians of Palestine that, as a condition of being in Palestine, they shall first become Jews.
They say they must first adhere to the principles of the League of Nations, that in Palestine there
is to be freedom of conscience. Well, that is all we ask ~ freedom of conscience. We want to
help them to build up Palestine, and they should give us the opportunity. . . .

You and I have been spared by Almighty God in a most wonderful way. Everything that
reason tells us should have preserved us was not there to aid us; we should have been annihilated
long ago, and our names should have been but a memory. You and! have been preserved and our

175

race has been preserved under God for a great cause, and I believe we shall see that great cause
for which we are preserved, coming more largely into our vision, and we shall serve that cause in
God's own time and way, but only if we are strong and remember that God who works, means to
work through us. If we remember that, I am confident we shall succeed.

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176

The Messiah Jesus, pp.

539-540

Acts 21:20-24

Strom. 6:5: Euseb. HE.

5:18

Acts 28:18

r/ze Jewish Background of the

Wars II, 13:5

Christian Liturgy.

Acts 23:26-30

Acts 9:1-2

Antiq. 20, 11:1

Recog. 1:70-71

Isaiah 10:33-34; Zech. 11:1

Euseb, H.E. 2:9

Matt. 24

Mysticism of St. Paul p

). 156

Gittin 57a

Recog. 4:35

Luke 21:20-24

Ep. Clem, ad Jac.

Rev. 22:6

Acts 14:27

Rev. 1:9; 2:19

Acts 15:13-21

1 Pet. 4:17

Recog. 1:42; Rom. 9:17-22

Wars 3, 9:3

Gal. 2:8

Matt. 24:29-30

Acts 15:23-29

Isa. 10:34; 11:1

Acts 11:27-29

2 Pet. 3:9

Antiq. 20, 2:5

Lost and Hostile Gospels, p. 3 5

The Messiah Jesus, po.

540 ff Cf

Adv. Haer. 1:26

Epiphanius. Haer 29:4; 78, based on
traditions preserved in the
Hypotyposeis of Clement and the

51
51

Chs. 21-23

Test. De Praescr. 33

Hypomnemata of Hegesippus.

Justin. 1st ApoL 53

Antiq 20, 9:2

Euseb. H.E. 3:32

Pesach 57a

Ibib

48:31-39

Ibib3:20

James 5:1-9

Ibib 3:32

Antiq. 20, 8:5-6

Ibib. 4:5

Iren. Haer 5:33

John 5:43

Bar. 29:5

Justin \st Apology, 31

Antiq. 20.9:1

Jerome Ep. ad Aug.

In Euseb. H.E. 2:23

Justin Dialoguec. Tryph. 96

Rom. 3:20

I Cor. 4:11-13

Gal. 5:1-2

Acts of Barnabas

Rom. 3:8

Rev. 21:14

Lost and Hostile Gospels, p. 29

John 17:3

2 Peter 2

Euseb. H.E. 5:9

Iren. Haer. 1:26

Acts 17:11

131

69 John 20:31

70 Rom. 3:30

71 S.P.C.K. ed. pp. 18-19

72 Op. cit, 31-32

73 Dial. 72-73

74 ^/zaM,. 13 a; 116b

75 //.£. 3:25,27

76 Cf. Mtt. 5:17: and see the addendum
to this chapter.

77 T. Hull. 2:24

78 Shabb. n6di

79 Dial c. Tryph. 17

80 Apol 16

81 Apol. 26

82 Abod. Zar. 27b

83 ^/zaZ)Z>. 14b

84 Sanh. 10:1

85 Mark 16:17-18

86 Panar. 30

87 F.B.L. vol 41, pp. 122-124

88 Tann. 27b

89 Tos. Bab. Mez. 2:33

90 ^Mcc. 48b

91 S ee Jame s . Apocryphal New
Testament

92 Jer.Dial.c.Pelag. 3:2

93 Jer. Cornm. in, ha. 11:2

94 C. Pellag. Supra

95 Ps. Orig. in Matt.

96 Jez. De Vir. Illust. 2

97 Ibib., 16

98 Cited in his Panarion

99 Epiph. Panar. 30:36

100 Sifra 140a

101 Ber. B. 48:6

102 Jerome, Comm. in lac.

103 Ibib.

104 Sec Epiph. Pawar/'oM.

105 Cf. Matt. 1:1

106 Panar. 39:7

107 Ibib 30:18

108 Euseb. H.E. 4:22

109 Ibib

177

110 H.E. 10:1

111 Canon 64

112 Ibib. 70

113 Ibib. 71

114 Ibib. 49

115 Ibib. 50

116 Socrat. F.£. 7:38

117 Quoted from Parkes The Conflict of
the Church and the Synagogue, pp.
397-400

118 Asaemani, Cod. Lit., I, p. 105

119 Cotton. K Mace. 32

120 Panar. 53

121 1 Tim. 6:20-21

122 Clem. Hom 15

123 Eph.. 5:23, 25, 21,31-32

124 1 Tim.4:3

125 B aring Goul d. Lost and Hostile
Gospels, p.231.

126 Epiph. Panar. 30:22

127 B. Sanh. 43a

128 Panar. 30

129 J^arkes, Conflict of Church and
Synagogue, p. 260

130 Parkes, Conflicts of Church and
Synagogue, p. 265

131 Milman, Hist, of the Jews, Vol. II.
p.295

132 Chronicle of the Goths.

133 Canon 57

134 Canon 59

135 Canon 60

136 Canon 62

137 Canon 63

132

138 Canon 64

139 Holy Cross Day

140 Canon 3

141 See The Conflict between the Church
and the Synagogue, pp. 283-291

142 Milman, Hist of the Jews, Vol. 2 p.

277

143 Trans. Bialloblotzky, Vol. 1, pp 117-
119

144 Milhemet Hobah, p. 13a J.is. art.
Trinity.

145 Finn. Sephardim, pp. 356-363

146 Hie jaeet in tumulo, vir per cuncta
fidelis

Sedis apostoliese tempore quo viguit,

Romae natus, opum, dives, probis et
satis alto,

Sanguine matemo nobilitatus erat.

Prudens et sapiens, et coelo pene sub
omni

Agnitus et Celebris, semper in urbe
manens,

Virgo ter senis fuerst cum sole diebus

Quando suum vitae fmierat spaatium.

147 J.E. art. Pierleoni.

148 Responsa 183-192

149 Israel and the Gentiles, p. 325

150 In his translation of Bar-Hebreus'
Commentary on the Gospels, pp. 33-
44

151 For the original Latin see
Margoliouth, The Jews in Great
Britain, pp. 224-225

1 52 For further details of the Home and its
inmates, see .J.E. aare. Domus
Conbersorum, by R. Michael Adler.

153 Trans. F.C. Conybeare.

154 ^u^^qW, Religious Thought and
Heresy in the Middle Ages, p. 713

155 Finn. Sephardim, pp. 380-381

156 Milman, Hist, of the Jews, Vol. II, p.
399

157 Milman. loc. cit. p. 389

158 Frankl, The Expulsion from Spain,
1492, trans. M.D. Louis

159 Israel and the Gentiles, pp. 367-8

160 Mocatta, The Inquisition and Judaism

161 Abbott, Israel in Europe, p. 227

162 Berstein, Jewish Witnesses for Christ

163 The Conspiracy of Lopez the Jew,
Jewish Chron. Suppl. Sept., 1929

164 Eng. trans, by John Camden Hotten,
p. 29

165 Ibib., p. 47

166 Israel and the Genties, pp . 513-4

167 The Jew and Christianity, p. 58

168 Danby, op. cit pp. 59-60

169 Toland, Nazarenus, pp. iv-vii

170 De le Roi, Jewish Baptisms in the
Nineteenth Century.

Ill See further Bernstein, Some Jewish
Witnesses for Christ, and J.El art.
Converts to Christianity, Modern. Not
all these were converts of the
missions.

172 Gidney, Biographies of Eminent
Hebrew Christians, No. IV

173 History of the L.J.S., pp. 43, 160, etc.

174 Ibib. p. 424

175 The Jews and the World Ferment, p.
151

176 Rev. 11:15

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++ END +++++++++++++++++++++++++++

133

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